


A Broken Sword

by Hythunza



Category: Destiny (Video Games), 盾の勇者の成り上がり - アネコユサギ | Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari | The Rising of the Shield Hero - Aneko Yusagi
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fantasy, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:00:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25606246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hythunza/pseuds/Hythunza
Summary: While guardian forces rally on Europa, a warlock that was investigating the Vault of Glass finds themself trapped. After a long, brutal battle and escape resulting in the loss of his ghost and voice, he finds himself in a new world without golden age technology and reason. With only one life to spare, he tries to find purpose in this new, unfamiliar world he has been told to save.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. New Journey

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there! This has been imported from FF.net manually(I just copy and pasted text over.). If you are looking to see reviews on this story before you start it, you can go over to FF.net.

What is a warlock?

Guardian Angels some would say, watching over their allies in battle, granting them mercy dealing sheer, unadulterated vengeance against their enemies and the Darkness. Being life's gardeners regardless of their element or personality, as they leave blinding wells of light and flourishing life in their wake as they traverse the cosmos. Strong leaders and mentors when no one else can be one, passing infinite wisdom down to those who are in need of it, and guiding all to a better tomorrow, bringing positive change at the speed of light.

Uncaring Demons some would say, abusing their power without regard for others, almost like proxies of the darkness. They burn, scorch, annihilate, and torture their foes with cunning traps, puzzles, and terrifying weapons of war that devour life from their victims like black holes, always empty and hungering for more power, more knowledge. They mathematically keep track of everything, coldly lying and abusing their underlings to keep them in their place in the universe, while placing themselves higher. Their precision tends to be as sharp as their wit, putting forth a series of calculations done in a nanosecond to figure out where to land a direct hit with any weapon.

But the truth is about warlocks is that they're all keepers of knowledge, children of history itself. Whereas the titan finds his strength and wisdom in battle, the warlock just takes a glance at titan-made texts. Where hunters find their art and cloak out in the wilderness, the warlock simply reads a detailed autobiography of one. In the end, the warlock gains more knowledge than anyone else of the three humanoid races or guardian classes in the sol system, and in turn, their brain becomes the muscle titans envy as they make precise machines that rival their sheer strength, give them the confidence that hunters lack without having a strong instinct by right of livelihood, all while learning their fighting styles.

If left unattended by the natural pull of life, a warlock can become a dangerous force that rivals the natural balance of the universe. But like every living thing in life, that force will remain without direction, as they have an incremental source of power as time goes on. And to move such a sheer force in one direction requires an equally tempting pull or push that something, anything with such gravity needs to lure the warlock into taking action, and bring forth the collective knowledge of humanity to swamp whatever comes in its way, whether for good or for the worse.

But even the tiniest, incorrect pull can result in catastrophic changes...

* * *

I sat myself down against the gate, tired, unexplainably pained and wounded from all the fighting. _This is it._ I thought to myself as I looked at the HUD, a program of such information that required the newborns of guardians to answer a small quiz about when they first enter the educational program for the guardian classes. _I am going to die._

My ammo was non-existent, the light beginning to become strained beyond comprehension, armor beginning to fail, and leave me exposed to the elements. In my haste for knowledge, I didn't expect to encounter a foe such as this during one of my many escapades in Venus. I didn't even expect the Vault to come back to life. And here I was, after grazing death for nearly a whole day, or was it a week? Months? In the Vault, time is irrelevant.

The Templar, and all of the Gorgons were dead, that I managed to do somehow using the tricks I learned from Osiris in the Infinite Forest. Instead of dying like any guardian would in my situation, I had managed to lace my light within the timestreams inside of the Vault of Glass before I fought to escape from this trap I was in, preventing myself from being deleted from reality as I tied myself into the Vault's mainframe by hacking into the Oracles. But it was not easy. For what felt like the longest time, I felt myself being pelted by the devouring burns of the Templar's Aeon cannons, almost feeling like lasers upon my back as they peeled away the skin whilst I used Kabr's shield to hold back, and beat the beast. For even longer, I felt every atom of my being becoming strained with each time I was detected by the Gorgons, feeling myself pop in and out of reality violently as I fought every Gorgon within the labyrinth, while they attempted to try and force my light out of the system.

For an eternity, I danced with death itself. And it had taken its toll.

As the sitting turned into lying limp against the metal mainframe, I looked to the gate. In my hazy senses, I found that it had activated somehow. A glimmer of hope within the dark burning chasms of the Vault. But I knew it would come with a cost, all things do.

In order to use this portal, I had to do the impossible. Which left me with two options. Cut off my connection to the Traveler; or face the impossible challenge of Atheon, who was Kabr's end along with the many Vex that fought him.

The choice wasn't hard to make.

I grasped at my own ghost. It wasn't brimming with life after everything that had happened, now just barely clinging onto consciousness. It hurt nearly as much as everything that we had just been through, and oddly enough it only amplified the pain. The ghost looked at me with its flickering light, as if trying to say it was ok. "Go- odbye- guar-dian.". Even though its voice was glitched, I was still able to hear it

I closed my eyes, and violently destroyed it, allowing myself to be free of the Vault, but forever on life support. I felt my very soul shaking as I crawled with desperation, every inch of my body screaming with agony. I felt as if I had cut the whole lower half of my body off as I strained to get inside the portal next to me. All the while, I just couldn't scream, being too warped by the pain to do anything else but act automatically. Memories flashed before my eyes, of all the people I had met in my guardian career.

Cayde-6 and his existential loneliness, Ikora and her journey to becoming one of the best warlock teachers in the Tower, Zavala and his endless example of being a leader that tried to keep the people's best interests as the goal of all guardians, Shaxx and his willingness to see all guardians better themselves, Drifter and his way of staying in between light and dark, the Bray sisters and their intertwining destinies.

As soon as I entered the portal, everything was gone, as was this life.

* * *

I awoke to an unfamiliar feeling around my body. It felt warm and cozy, like that of animal hide with faux fur, and a soft, yet firm feeling beneath me, and it was enough to make me realize that I escaped. Opening my eyes, I came to an unfamiliar room, with what seemed to be three men chatting, though as to what it was taking me a few seconds to ascertain what they were saying.

"...-It's exactly like Emerald Online."

"Never heard of it."

"Huh, seriously? It's huge!"

"What are you talking about? This isn't an online game. It's a new console game I'm playing, called Dimension Web."

A silence then fell upon the room as the three seemed to stare at each other in confusion. I took this moment to try and get myself out of bed, groaning as I did so. The three turned to look at me with waves of shock and relief coming over them.

"Hey, the sword guy is awake!"

"Hopefully he doesn't think this is Skyrim or something."

"What's Skyrim?"

_The hell are these kids talking about?_

As my vision began to clear up, I was eventually able to identify the strangers before me. Before me were three young adolescents by pre-golden age standards. A short boy with a matching short light brown curly hair and green... gold eyes? It was hard to tell due to the lighting, but I could tell the boy held the fire of a newborn, starry-eyed guardian that doesn't know better, especially since he was wearing the pre-golden age school outfits. He was making his way over to me with a bow and another man who had spiky black hair, a greenish, white tracksuit with black jeans, and definitely sharp green eyes while holding a shield. Meanwhile, there was a blonde man with a red jacket and white undershirt just sitting on his brown cargo jeans as he held a spear in his grasp.

_This... did the Vex send me in the past?_

Although in contrast as to what they were wearing, the room was anything but the pre-golden age era or post-collapse in architecture and design. Rather, it felt like I was in one of the fables of the medieval times, which had since been lost to the collapse and only given a very general description of.

"You were passed out the moment we got here, in pain even." The spiky-haired man said as he helped me up with the bow kid's assistance. "Are you alright? You looked like you've been through hell and back."

I tried to make a pithy joke, but ended up finding that my vocal cords were gone. All I ended up doing was letting out a dreadful sound that made everyone flinch.

"Yeesh." The blonde man said. "I guess we shouldn't push the dead guy for now. Or undead? I dunno."

The two looked to the blonde man, causing me to be unable to see their expressions. After a few seconds, the curly-haired kid sighed and went back to his spot, while the spiky-haired guy went and got some paper and pen for me to write on. I moved to a chair, still shaking from the loss of my light.

"I'm Naofumi Iwatani." The man said as he handed me the paper and pen. "Those two are Motoyasu Kitamura and Itsuki Kawasumi."

Sensing I had to make an identity for myself, I took a moment to consider things. _Using my current name may be recognizable. Language changes a lot over the course of centuries, so if I were to put it down, they may end up making a name for me anyhow... their names sound Japanese. May be best to go ahead and try the earliest Japanese name I could recall here._

After a brief moment of thought, I wrote down the name "Mokoto Hotaru.". After a moment of looking at the paper, they seemed pleased.

"Mokoto Hotaru, huh?" The spiky-haired guy said as he looked at it.

"Sounds pretty good. Kinda girly if you ask me though."

"I think it's quite the name. You may have a challenger, Motoyasu."

Motoyasu huffed. "He can't get more girls than me."

 _Boy, I've bedded women 14 times your age, and I can tell you're at least 20._ I so badly wanted to say, though I ended up just grunting instead.

"I dunno, Motoyasu. He seems to disagree."

"Look, we're getting off-topic here." Motoyasu cut-in, having enough of all the talk. "Itsuki, you said this game is Dimension Web?"

"While you said this was Emerald Online." Naofumi then pointed out. "Are we even from the same worlds?"

_Or timelines?_

"Let's see about that everybody name the prime minister."

They all said different names and were immediately shocked by the results. They tried more with others, and while they were busy finding about each other, I snuck out of the room to test my own abilities, finding myself in a castle's hallway. There was nobody around, at least from what I saw, and thus I had the perfect opportunity to test my strength. I looked at my armor, a set of simulator armor. I attempt to glide, jumping up into the air and yanking on the gravitational pull of the planet.

Sure enough, I jumped far higher than any normal person could, and had a slow enough descent to keep myself balanced. I then jumped off a couple of tables I stacked to verify if I could stop my speed entirely, and sure enough, I felt myself abruptly stop for a second before touching the ground. Grinning to myself, I then tried to summon a firebolt grenade. The typical ball of flame appeared, and I threw it out of my hands to see a ring of fire pass through everything, before collapsing, not seeing anything as a live target. I then thrust my hand out, seeing a scorch of fire. I then reached for my gun.

It wasn't there. Instead, I had Boltcaster, although it looked weak, cracked even. And on my other side, I felt a new weight make itself known. It was a simple sword, no element to it whatsoever. The sight of the two weapons made me pause.

And that pause was enough for sudden, terrifying realization to make way. I quickly began to hyperventilate, fear striking me. _What the hell was I thinking!? Am I even able to do this still?! Where's my fallback?!_

As I was mentally berating myself, the others seemed to have just realized I was missing, as I heard the door open. "Yo Mokoto, where you going?"

I turned around to look at Motoyasu.

Motoyasu's eyes widened, and he closed the door. Moments later, the rest of the group came out to check on me, all readied with their weapon as Naofumi went to my side. They looked around as if looking for any intruders. After I calmed myself down, I pat Naofumi on the back to let him know everything was okay, and he signaled to everyone that I was ok.

"What happened out here? What were you doing even?" Naofumi asked as he looked straight into my eyes.

"Yeah dude, you just left us without at least letting us know!" Motoyasu exclaimed. "I mean, you didn't even let us know what world YOU were from, and you have that weird looking dress on you!"

That caused me to glare at him. _It's armor, not a dress!_

Itsuki sighed. "Mokoto, you have to let us know what you're doing. It's basic party 101."

"Yeah, plus you're mute." Naofumi also added. "You can't call for help or tell us what's going on. We need to keep track of you."

_...Naofumi, you have a noble heart, but you don't seem to realize that the best way to cover this deficiency is to be self-reliant and intuitive about others._

"Well, that was a rush..." Motoyasu said as he relaxed, putting the tip of his spear into the sky as he rested it. I simply got up and then walked back into the room, wrote my intentions down and presented it to Motoyasu.

"Library."

"You're looking to go to the library? At this hour?" Motoyasu couldn't help but look incredulous at what I was thinking. I wrote down more.

"Knowledge is power."

Motoyasu then sighed as he looked to Naofumi and Itsuki. "Which one of you two wanna stay up and watch him?"

The two looked at each other.

"Whoever wins has to watch him."

"Deal."

They engaged in rock paper scissors. Naofumi sighed in annoyance.

"It's probably for the best anyhow. You're a shield, so if anything comes your way and we hear it, we might just make it in time. Or the guards, at the least." Itsuki reasoned, before turning to me. "The library is just down the hallway. Try not to stay up too late, please?"

I wrote more on the paper. "I'm fine without an escort. Just had a bad memory come back to me earlier. Also, I've rested long enough, need to do something."

"You don't have anyone to talk for you though." Itsuki reasoned. "At least let Naofumi speak for you if a guard comes by or something."

I frowned at that for a moment, before nodding. We then parted our ways, Itsuki and Motoyasu going back to the room we have, while Naofumi accompanied me to the library. As soon as I got in, I started drinking in information almost immediately as I sped through the books. A niche thing about warlocks is that we're the quickest to learn information, although slow to adapt. In my case scenario, I was perfectly in my environment as I quickly learned the written languages, and I had no doubts that it didn't look like it to Naofumi that I wasn't even reading.

So it wasn't a surprise that he eventually tapped my shoulder after a dozen books. "Uhhh, didn't we come here to read? Not skim things?"

I wrote more on the paper, and turned to him. "Would you like me to make several essays right now about the books?"

Naofumi seemed to be doubting my ability at first, but upon seeing how much I was challenging him on it, he left me be. In roughly a half-hour, I had read enough to have a general understanding of Melromarc itself, as well as how things worked around here, and what was the importance and usage of what now seems to be the most popular thing in the city, judging by the newspapers that were around the library.

Which inevitably lead to me discovering the chat and inventory function activated by looking at a small dot in my vision to open up a menu screen, as I cast away the paper to open it up, metaphysical keyboard in front of me. I type in a text message into the chat, which is stuff only party members and other heroes could see. "Test."

Naofumi noticed it appearing as well, and smiled in relief. "Oh, so this world does have a chat function! At least we won't be needing paper now." He said as he scratched the back of his head.

I smiled as well and typed out a message. "I think that's enough. I'm going to find out what happened to my sword."

"Your sword?" Naofumi said quizzically. I presented Boltcaster to him, and he seemed to understand.

I sat down on the floor to inspect Boltcaster. I put a finger on the Willbreaker shard, and as soon as I did so, the sword crumbled away, as did the rest of the weapon. Naofumi seemed alarmed at what happened to my weapon as the metal fell apart, as the shard turned to dust. I then picked up the dust, examining it closely to see if I could save the weapon. Sighing, I put it away into a pocket, causing a little dust to get onto my other sword. A message then appeared.

**Necrotic Sword(Arc)**

**Unlocked!**

**Rarity: Legendary**

**Level 1**

**Attack:60/5**

**Weight:4.4lb**

**Accuracy:22/13**

**Hands:2/1**

**Level 1 Perk(Unlocked)**

**Necrochasm**

**Passive: Kills with the weapon charge the weapon by stealing the enemies' life force. When fully charged, gain a 2.0x XP bonus, or change into assault rifle mode and gain XP debuff of 0.5x until you run out of ammo.**

**Level 1 Perk(Unlocked)**

**Willbreaker**

**Passive: Non-boss level enemies below level 15 will convert to your side for 2 minutes with each successful hit for a chance of 4%. Active: After leveling up you or the sword, the next person you speak to will obey you for one command.**

**Level 5 Perk(Locked)**

**Level 5 Perk(Locked)**

**Level 10 Perk(Locked)  
**

**Level 10 Perk(Locked)**

**Level 20 Perk(Locked)**

**Level 20 Perk(Locked)**

**Level 40 Perk:(Locked)**

**Level 40 Perk:(Locked)**

While there were certainly more perks to look at, there were also other branches, such as the Sol and Void edition of Willbreaker. How I would unlock them though, I had no clue in the slightest, but seeing as that did something to my new sword, I grabbed Naofumi's shield as I once more took the dust out of the pocket while it was still in my hand. He was confused at first, but as his shield changed to that of the Vanquishers on Mars, he figured out what I was doing.

"This... this is amazing!" Naofumi said as he seemed to be in awe of his new stats and abilities. "We need to share this with the others. Can we-"

I motioned for him to do so, pointing at the dust and then moving my hand to the door.

"But wouldn't you-"

"I can defend myself. Get moving." I typed out with my other hand, and Naofumi obliged, gathering as much of the Willbreaker's dust as he could before leaving. As he left, I gathered up my broken metal and looked for the Zeptocyte cores. Zeptocyte cores, despite what some would think, weren't exactly the easiest to obtain materials, and when The Guardian that managed to slay Oryx and replicate his Willbreaker shards with the help of Shaxx first made Razelighter, I and many other weaponsmiths had gone to making different versions with the shard included, eventually making a breakthrough and finding out how to make light-infused swords without Willbreaker at all. Though it wasn't to say none of the efforts I made were easy.

_Ah, my beloved Boltcaster... one day, I will reforge you, and leave you in the hands of a capable warrior. I promise you this._

I then stuff the material into my pockets, causing more messages to appear that said the materials were in my inventory. I paid little attention to it, still mourning over the loss of my sword.

 _At least, the Necrotic Sword seems like a viable replacement..._ I thought as I went through my usable swords, finding nothing else but the Necrotic Sword. As soon as I equipped it, the remaining sword I had changed into that of what seems to be a mix of Oryx's Willbreaker sword and an Ascendant Sword. The blade itself was jagged, without life, although I had no doubt that if I was to kill things, it would become alight and level up as I fought.

I looked out of a window, watching the night sky as I gazed into the cosmos. _I don't know what happened back there. If someone helped me out, or if the Vex, maybe even someone worse than them, had removed me from the Vault to be here. But I promise you, the invisible force who brought me to this underdeveloped world... I will find out who you are. And even though my light is crippled, I will do whatever is necessary to defend humanity._


	2. Deep Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a draining night of study, the warlock passes out in the library and awakens to one of the librarian's assistants, Sparrow. After a small conversation with them, he meets up with Naofumi, Itsuki, and Motoyasu at breakfast, having a small chat before finally meeting King. The warlock analyzes his surroundings and makes a deduction that slips past the eye of the heroes, disbanding the party he was handed without a second thought. He calls forth the assistant from the library to make a companion, resulting in her undertaking a small metamorphosis as she is made his slave.

Sleep.

Sleep is believed to be unnecessary for guardians, ghostless or not. The reason being behind this is of course resurrection. When you are newly resurrected, you are, in a technical sense, brand new, so every time you're tired you just resurrect yourself, resolving every problem within a second by simply shedding skin. While this is true scientifically speaking, it is still necessary for a guardian to have rest.

But sleep is necessary whether or not you need genuinely need it to survive. The mind needs time to reflect on things, and the body requires that you lay down on your bed for a period of time in order to straighten itself out. For even in sleep, your body is getting affected by the gravitational pull of Earth. Many studies had been made proving that there are as many physical health problems not sleeping properly or had not been resting their own body, as physical problems that come from sleeping too much. Indeed, the more time you spend no longer sleeping, the more strain your legs feel, and the more your mind has to process while still processing past events and deciding if it was noteworthy. Not sleeping in the exact position necessary can also cause damage to your body, making you feel uncomfortable, or in some cases, becoming physically injured due to sleeping.

Of course, in spite of this, those who are hard at work tend to ignore these basic necessities of life in favor of sleeping on the wrong things, such as couches, floors, or even...

* * *

I awoke to the feeling of someone prodding my side. And, unfortunately for the person who decided to touch a sleeping ageless soldier, I rewarded them by catching them in a hold, my body jumping up as I twisted in the air, doing a backflip over them as I grabbed their elbows, tied the arms behind their back and thrust their face into the table. I heard a yelp of surprise and pain as I drew my sword. Once my instincts had stopped, I realized what I had done and stepped back, releasing my hold as I did so.

"Oweee…" The assailant, which turned out to be some bird-human hybrid, let out as they got up from the table. They then turned to look at me. "I'm terribly sorry for disturbing you Sir Hero, but you were drooling on the book. Mistress would've been very displeased if I didn't remove you from it…"

I took in the assailant's form. She seemed to be a teenage girl with bird-like wings for arms, fairly muscled from organizing books and other things of the sort. She was dressed in a simple brown dress, a magic symbol in between her chest. What the symbol was, I didn't know, but judging from the fact that she spoke like a black person back in the few texts the tower had of America during the 1900s, I suspected that she was a victim of racism. Another sign… this world may indeed be underdeveloped. As a guardian, I cannot let this stand.

I turned away. Precisely how should I do this, though? The wrong push could have my actions seen negatively, as if I was heavily favoring the suppressed side in this land, or maybe favoring Siltvelt. Perhaps victory by overwhelming the nation with new technologies would be viable? Then, being seen as a more valid source of wisdom, I could stop the fighting and unite the two races under one banner. Although it'd be incredibly costly to do so, and-

"Sir Hero? Are you okay?"

I snapped out of my thoughts to look at the woman. Duty calling to check and see if she was okay, I signaled to her that I was mute, before getting paper and pen.

"I'm alright. Let me heal you."

"Heal me? Oh, sir hero, you don't-" I interrupted her by letting my light reserved flow through her via touching her forehead, not only healing the bruises I gave her, but allowing me to sense the rest of the damage. Poor thing was bruised in more than one place, even had some fractures here and there. Small damage all around, and in not so noticeable places. I also detected disease, and not just the normal kinds, lying dormant within her. Once I let go, she seemed to be amazed of my prowess. "I didn't think you knew healing magic, sir hero! And without speaking even!"

"Must always adapt." I wrote in response, as I noted to ensure I take her in my care before I start my journey into the new world.

_…I still need to figure out the exact method necessary to handle the primitive people before me._

"Well, I'd say that's pretty impressive!" The woman replied with a smile. "Oh, where's my manners? I'm Sparrow. What's your name, Sir Hero?"

"Mokoto Horatu." Was all I wrote before leaving. _I will make you into my paragon of light soon enough. For now, wait until the inevitable selection process the King will no doubt offer me is over with._

The woman seemed confused as I left, but a friendly smile and wave reassured her that I didn't think wrong of her.

I returned to our room to find that the rest of the legendary heroes had already left. Seeing as there was nothing for me, I investigated the area. As expected, half of the bed covers were not made, and there were even some dirty plates. Out of fairness to the maids, I made the beds and cleaned the plates by burning the remnants of the food out of existence, using controlled flames as to not stain or cause damage. I then left without a trace.

After some wandering, I managed to figure out where the court was, which I did by getting blocked by some guards who told me he was in a meeting. I was then directed to the dining hall and caught up with my, for a lack of an appropriate term, blueberry teammates. Itsuki, Naofumi, and Motoyasu all seemed to be surprised, but happy I was here.

"Morning nerd!" Motoyasu casually said as he ate some steak. "How was last night? You sure got busy in that library!"

My initial message was going to be neutral, but seeing what Motoyasu called me, I edited it. "Morning Naofumi, Itsuki, Crayon Eater. It was fine. Learned of the world, and got woken up by a hawk lady."

Naofumi couldn't help but chuckle, and Itsuki couldn't help but be taken aback with Motoyasu as I took my seat.

"These are battle robes by the way, not a dress."

"Ok, you can stop it with the passive-aggressiveness..." Motoyasu muttered distastefully as he went back to finishing off his food, just a plate of pancakes. Naofumi had some waffles and sausage, while Itsuki had french toast.

When I took my seat, I wrote down my order to one of the maids around. A majority of them were men and women similar to Sparrow, except with different animal parts and colors. Since what I ordered was simple in nature, it didn't take long for my plate of chia seeds and various kinds of fruit from this world to come to me on a literal silver platter. I quietly partook of my food, just casually listening in as they talk whilst occasionally sending a message or two in the chat. When we finished, and I didn't take too long, we were then summoned to the court. As soon as the King started giving a classic Zavala-styled speech about having gathered warriors, I tuned everything out and reacted according to how I imaged the scenario, as I continued plotting towards changing the world with newfound technology and critical thinking. It was that boring.

Until she spoke up.

"Would you kindly allow me to switch parties and join the shield hero?"

Almost instantly, I sensed something was wrong, and I didn't care that I didn't have my helmet on to hide it. I looked at the person in question, who was a member of Motoyasu's party, as she stepped out of line.

"Are you sure?"

"I am!" The voice didn't carry the tone of a warrior that was inevitably displeased with how Naofumi had a lack of people on his side. It was almost as if it was a generous offer all on its own, something that gave me the feeling that she was one of the uppity, fancy guardians that throw their triumphs in the Crucible around when they never put their light on the line. For such was the nature of Shaxx's Crucible, allowing guardians to stay off the field in exchange for being publicly watched during Crucible matches. As much as the man hated to admit it, a lot of guardians had rather go fight there instead of doing anything productive for the City, which forces the Vanguard to keep the image of guardians being defenders up through risky tactics with only a small amount of the overall guardian population willing to help on a consistent basis.

And this girl most definitely gave off that feeling of having done nothing to prove herself in war. No triumphs, no actual ambition, just looking to be seen as important.

_...Perhaps I'm overanalyzing things. But considering that Melromarc houses the Church of the Three Heroes, it's possible that the King may be attempting to ruin Naofumi before he got a chance to do anything._

It was then that a burning, sickening question came to mind.

It was a burning thought about the world ever since I got here and immediately stormed the library to make a swift, general education on Melromarc and the world. I knew that knowledge was my power, and with it I knew that it did not operate on the basis of science and logic, and while they can certainly be applied here, the strange thing is that out of everything else, the Legendary Heroes were the exceptions in the system of this reality, having varying accounts across the board. Which begged the question to me.

_If I were to let this slide... would the system allow Naofumi to adapt to his surroundings?_

It was a morally wrong experiment to even try. But perhaps armed with the knowledge, I could find ways to make Motoyasu and Itsuki more useful than I had initially anticipated. And this betrayer could simply serve as a puppet. But morally wrong things are against guardian code for a reason.

 _It's not like it stopped guardians before, though... this is all in the name of safety and progress, right?_ I inevitably ended up countering in my head, attempting to find reason in my actions. But reason was cut short by reality.

"Hey, Mokoto!"

I snapped out of my gaze to look at Itsuki. "Dude, what's with you? You've been out of it ever since you woke up!"

I cocked my head in confusion.

"You were staring at my new party member and I as if we were lab experiments." Naofumi clarified as I turned to face him. He seemed miffed and partially creeped out. "I don't know what you're thinking, but maybe you can just NOT scare my only sword away?"

I then looked at the crowd above us to gauge their reaction, and saw the telltale amulets of the Church of the Three Heroes. Bow, spear, and sword. Aside from the crowd being unnerved, that ended up confirming things for me.

"I know what's going on here, Aultcray." I typed out as I turned to face him, with even more confusion on his face. "As tempted as I am to stop it, I have a theory that regards the outcome of this being a positive change. Rest assured though, you will pay the price."

"What theory?" Motoyasu couldn't help but ask, now visibly disturbed by what I was saying. "What's going on here, Mokoto?"

"Is he speaking to you two telepathically?" The King asked, as I realized that in my sudden shift of attention, I had forgotten how the function worked. "What is he saying?"

"He's acting as if something suspicious is going on here, speaking to us through an internal messenger system that we have," Itsuki said as he looked around. "I don't see what he's seeing, though."

Naofumi followed where my gaze was previously and looked at the crowd. He didn't seem to see the same things I did.

"What is going on is irrelevant to me. Naofumi, inform the king that I do not require these warriors behind me." I typed out, much to the shock of the blueberries.

Naofumi didn't seem to have the slightest shred of idea as to what would happen to him. Yet. Which was good, because he followed my orders. "Mokoto is requesting for all the warriors behind him to not join his party."

The followers I had, as expected, were outraged at Naofumi's proclamation, further confirming my theory about the religion here. So in order to quell the miscreants, I drew my sword at them, turning the request into an order. Shocked, disheartened, and having been thrown a 180 by reality, they obliged, just silently leaving the courtroom.

"Sir Mokoto, what is the meaning of this? Do you not trust the adventurers I brought you?" The King seemed to have been offended by everything I had relayed through the heroes.

"I want a particular companion. The hawk woman who woke me up in the library." I typed out.

"Hawk woman? You mean the chatty Harpy girl who tried to get us to wake you up?" Motoyasu said, catching the crowd's attention as he thought about it. "...Seems like a fit, no offense."

"That shouldn't be!" The King shouted as he jolted up. "Sir Mokoto, surely there are better candidates than a demi-human for someone such as yourself?"

I folded my arms and smirked, giving the King a look that spoke my knowing words loud and clear. _Do you dare question me, the person that's perceived as a god by the religion you house here?_

After a moment of intense staring between the two of us, the King sighed in defeat. "Very well. Name this maiden, and we shall enlist her with you.

I typed her name. "Sparrow your 'majesty'."

It was then that Itsuki typed in the chat. "Mokoto, you shouldn't think of the King as an enemy. He's here to help us." Was all he put in before clearing his throat. "Her name is Sparrow, King."

"We'll find this Sparrow as you find your equipment." The King said, and I held a hand up to protest, shaking my head as I did so.

"Okay, I know you think that's armor Mokoto, but it's not." Motoyasu said in protest. "There's no way that would stop any weapon."

I looked to Motoyasu with a smug smirk on my face, before taking a spear out of a guard's hand. Since my intentions weren't for combat, I simply thrust it as hard as I could into the cloth that was separate from the body. The weapon broke. The hadronic essence never budged. And I had proven my point to the Crayon Eater. "Any complaints now, Crayon Eater?"

"...No complaints." Motoyasu said, as the other two and the woman simply stared shocked at my initiative, as well as the rest of the followers.

A long, confused silence befell the room, before the King cleared his throat. "Right then... I guess the other heroes should focus on getting ready. Naofumi is allowed to recruit for his party in the future, as is Mokoto should he desires." The King then waved an arm to one of his guards. "Please locate this Sparrow and bring her to the Mage's Quarters. And cancel the previous meeting, I need a break to try and comprehend everything that happened."

I cast a look of sympathy to Naofumi as he left, which did not get unnoticed by the other heroes. I could tell that the look gave Naofumi a growing sense of unease, although that would quickly be put away by Naofumi's companion manipulating the worries out of him.

 _This world just got very, very... interesting._ I said as I was then escorted to the Mage's Quarters.

* * *

It made my heart jump to watch time fly once more. Since the meeting took place, two and a half startling hours had passed, changing the lighting of the room I was patiently waiting in. It was strange, seeing light and shadow move from one place to another, even though I knew exactly what was going on. But to me, it was still a concept that was alien ever since my time in the non-linear world of the Vault of Glass. It was enough to make me look out the window to be sure I was in the right time and place, and not in a simulation or teleported to some other similar place in time.

I must've become so entrenched with staring out the window, that the only thing I noticed was the crying after the doors opened. I looked to see Sparrow. She was crying, terrified even as we locked eyes, my analytic look gazing into her soul. "Please Sir..." The girl began begging as she continued to cry. "I don't know what I did to offend you so deeply. I never meant it, I swear! Please don't hurt me!"

It made me feel bad for a few moments. But I recalled the damage I sensed when I healed her, the damage hidden away, and felt conviction as my guardian code reminded me of my duty to the people. _You will understand why I am doing this, Sparrow. And you will find my own conviction in your liberation, letting it be part of your soul as you fly freely once more into the eternal fight for true equality and freedom._

I kept my indifferent gaze even as the head mage walked up to my side. "The circle in the back has been constructed, Sir Mokoto. The mages are ready for your servant."

I nodded as they dragged my soon to be a disciple and eternal companion into the backroom. I made sure to be ahead of them, only sparing a glance back while I listened to her continuous apologies. As soon as we made it into the certain of the circle, she just stopped, as if accepting her fate as the terror in her eyes left completely, along with any trace of emotion.

"Will you do the disrobing, Sir Mokoto?" I looked to the mage who had offered the idea, greeting him with an uncaring look. "It would help to state the role of master and slave here."

 _Soon enough, slaves will no longer exist in this world. So the process here is meaningless to me._ I waved at the onlookers to remove their sight from Sparrow as I disrobed her, trying to make it apparent that I cared little for her body. She didn't seem to pay attention, even as she became completely exposed to the natural elements. I saw a seal of sorts, no doubt magical in nature, and made a mental note to thoroughly analyze the process as the mages did it in case this proves of use to me. I clapped my hands, letting everyone know she was ready.

"Reversing a slave seal is of no issue, Sir Mokoto." The mage said as he applied a white powder to the existing slave seal, something I quickly noted as it disappeared. "It is the application process that is... tedious and painful. For the slave that is. Your blood is all the requirement that is necessary." The mage finished as he applied a new seal in place of the old one.

I hummed in thought at the complications of that. While under normal circumstances, donating even the most powerful of guardian blood to a mortal would be of no issue. Although this was mainly in part of the Traveler's constant radiance, filling non-guardians with enough light that any surge in light balance in the body is scientifically impossible. Should such a thing were to occur, a theory was proposed by warlock Ikora Rey in what precisely would happen in the event pure, untouched mortal blood was mixed with that of a guardian's. Either said person would have a fever so powerful, their brain would slowly melt until the subject died, or... they become a ghostless guardian without any control over the elements of the light, only having a vast regenerative ability, a guardian-level immune system, and dramatically increased stamina.

_It's not like there's any other option at this moment. But perhaps this ritual would mitigate the effects._

I drew my sword and cut my hand, letting out a small grunt as blood dripped onto the circle. To my utter shock and horror, however, the fact that I had cut myself with the Necrotic Sword caused me to unknowingly mix my blood with it, allowing it to be warped with a substance that should not have been present still in a weapon such as Boltcaster. Darkness mixed with the light within the blood as it poured onto the ritual circle.

The natural light that was pouring into the room slowly dimmed into nothingness as the mages began to panic, unsure as to what was going on. Sparrow began to choke as darkness poured out of her every orifice, as light poured out of her pores, illuminating the room and showing the encroaching darkness that was slowly but surely making its way up to the mages, who hurriedly prepared spells to try and force it back. I stood in between the twilight light as darkness passed through me, uninterested in attempting to devour my very being, as I watched her closely. The war between light and dark was visible upon her very body, and I watched as every atom of her beginning to shimmer until-

**WARNING! Potentially dangerous substance detected WARNING!**

\o/

\o/ \o/

**Dreadfang Unlocked!**

Balance.

The room erupted with such sheer cosmic force that I was temporarily blinded. The mages were battered, not dead, just unconscious. The windows have been blown to pieces, and where was once a girl who lost the will to live was now a being of light and dark. Whatever color she had in her eyes before the ritual was now replaced by an even balance of silver, and the arms that were once just simple wings now had more humanesque elements to them, with hands that still had large claws with the size of her old wings going from the bottom of her wrists to her shoulders.

_So you made it out, despite the unintentional infection._

_Wha... Sir Hero? Is this you?_

I looked at my Necrotic Sword. It seemed as if it had leveled up a fair bit due to this action, now having reached level 5 in one of the sword's own power levels, since I had not reached level 5 or slain anything recently.

**Level 5 Perk: Unlocked!**

**Navigator**

**Active ability: Tapping into servants imbued with your power allow you to see through their eyes, and learn how to reach their location on a whim. Enemies turned with Willbreaker can have their knowledge extracted from them, instantly killing them afterward.**

_Interesting... it appears as if this unintentional factor ended up being more of a benefit than I anticipated._

_Why is that, Sir Hero?_

_You have just leveled up my sword. The details from there are irrelevant, though, and please, call me Mokoto._

_Yes sir- I mean Mokoto. Thank you for not hurting me!_

_Who said anything about hurting you? I simply empowered you if anything else._

_Empowered...?_

_Listen closely. I have selected you to fight alongside me, because you have the physical qualities I would need in the upcoming Waves._

_But I am just a simple librarian, Mokoto. How exactly am I able to help you defeat the waves?_

_Because I'm a firm believer in that even the lowliest of those out there can rise to greatness if given the chance. And you, my harpy girl, were in quite the low spot, even though you tried your best to make it not look like so. So I have the confidence that if you are willing to put your best step forward to showing the power of demi-humans, and I the power of humanity, we can prove to both Siltvelt and Melromarc that both sides are equals, and that slavery on either race should no longer be allowed. What say you, the idea of changing the world?_

There was a moment of silence on her end. _Mokoto, I am deeply honored that you are putting your best foot forward into stopping this senseless conflict between our races. I do not know as to how you sensed my condition in life when we met, but I can tell your thoughts are honest, that you wouldn't have brought me here without any other reason than to simply help me become strong. I will gladly fight alongside you._

_Then rise and rejoice, Sparrow. For you have been taken._

I handed her a knife, a memento of a dear friend. _This knife is for you. A dear friend once had it, he was a lucky man who relied too much on it._

She picked it from my hand and stared at it. _I wish to call it prerogative._

 _Then so it be._ Was all I thought back in our now linked connection between one another, as I then investigated the new sword in my collection. However, when I tried to look for Dreadfang, it was nowhere to be found.

As if the notification I had meant nothing at all.


	3. Renewed Wings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The warlock sets out on his journey with his newfound companion and speaker, getting her ready for combat and suited with him, as to ensure the mutual understanding between the two of them. While gathering the equipment necessary for the journey ahead, the warlock is recommended Erhard's shop as to get Sparrow gear as the heroes go out and grind.

A lot of warlocks often change into other classes of guardians at the social pressure of the other classes, never looking back at what would've made them above the level of others. Titans would often mock our lack of strength, never putting muscle into our tasks and instead using our light, calling it cheap and something that only weakens us. Hunters would often try to compete with us at various tasks that actually don't contribute to anything but personal skill, always attempting to be more accurate than warlocks by whatever means they can, getting a headshot with a ricocheted bullet that shouldn't be able to ricochet, being more accurate by simple millimeters, and always trying to beat a warlock's calculations when it comes to anything.

When the Vanguard was established, the idea that warlocks were the duds of the Traveler's chosen meant to do nothing but heal had vanished, but through this adversity, warlocks that came through ascended the other classes with revived vigor. No longer did the taunts of the titans weigh down the warlocks, when they figured out how to use their powerful connection of the Sunsinger and Dawnblade subclasses to provide a challenge to titans that weren't versed with the Strikers. No longer did the accuracy of Gunslingers and Nightstalkers mattered, when a warlock became able to determine exactly where their enemy was on the field, and launch a nova bomb onto their position without them even being aware. No longer were the warlocks weak at keeping armies at bay, finding creative ways to burn the battlefield with fire and lightning, leaving the embittered titans to murmur in frustration as the warlock strikes fast enough to corner the enemy with brute precision, while remaining virtually indestructible with their ability to self-resurrect.

And while this adversity had long since vanished, especially during and after the Red War, some warlocks still cling to their old ways, finding the new generation of warlocks weak, and having a deep, embedded hatred for non-warlocks...

* * *

After re-dressing my newfound companion and ensuring that there were no misunderstandings about the situation, I got my daily fighting salary from the King and left the castle without another word, seeking to find my Harpy a weapon to wield along with armor to protect herself. There was just one issue with my plan, however.

I never bothered to research into the daily lives of adventurers and soldiers in the current state of Melromarc, having only learned history and political situation between other existing countries.

So naturally, I decided to try the chat function before I left the castle gates. It was a good opportunity to test and see if the chat function could be used for long-distance communication since I only ever used it in the proximity of the other heroes. "Does anyone know a good smith? I have acquired Sparrow, and look to supply her with the means to fight and level up."

Almost instantly, I got a quick reply from all three of my teammates in the Waves.

Motoyasu: "Are you seriously just going to let her fight for you? That's messed up."

Itsuki: "I kind of just got new clothes instead of armor, am opting to save up since as an archer I'd only need to dodge and stay out of range while I attack. I hope you aren't just having Sparrow be the only one fighting?"

Naofumi: "There's a guy named Erhard, got this sweet chainmail from him, although unfortunately, I found out we're only limited to our weapons. And that we can't take them off, unless we're just throwing them at someone, but then it'd appear back on us. Also, rude Motoyasu."

"Thanks Naofumi. And yes, I do plan on having her fight for me. For a time, that is. As I've made evident with you three, my defensive and offensive power far outweighs you children."

A silence reigned for a moment in the chat.

Itsuki: "Okay..."

Motoyasu: "Sicko."

Naofumi: "Why you calling us children anyhow? What's your problem with all of us?"

"I'm just being accurate." I typed as I walked. "I can tell you lot are either in your late 10s or early 20s. In my homeworld, 100 is to be young for both genders. And frankly, all of you give off the feeling of not being mentally mature for the task ahead, especially Motoyasu with his whole womanizing part of his persona. Can confirm as a woman."

I then left the chat from there, no longer interested in the new notifications as I knew the outcome of what I just said, which would inevitably involve Motoyasu inadvertently exposing the fact he never let his companions fight for him, even though they were all women that came along to fight for him. I asked around for directions to this 'Erhard', and apparently he was a famous weaponsmith in the city, known for his craftsmanship. Though what Naofumi said ended up begging a question for me. _If I cannot pick up other weapons, then what would happen to similar swords? Would I have to break them down into materials just to have that sword, increase the values of 'smithing' and 'craftsmanship' in this reality-tied system that I'm still exploring?_

Just from the one sentence that Naofumi said, over a hundred questions were already beginning to pop up in my head. But I would suppose I would have plenty of time to confirm what I am wondering for when I finally reach the shop.

_Is it true though, master, err... mistress Mokoto? That you are a girl?_

_I am an interchangeable being by the sheer nature of my powers. If I so much as wanted, I could be either gender by simply manipulating the cells in my body to swap to the opposite gender._

_Ah... so what should I refer to you then?_

_Just call me Mokoto and nothing else._ I then left the city gates, and was immediately greeted with the delighted gazes of the religious people here, only to be confused as I traveled with Sparrow. I knew the reason why, of course. The idea that a demi-human was traveling with one of their god-like heroes confused them immensely, and for the few fanatics that tried to pry her away from me, they were sent away by the threatening tip of my Necrotic Sword, as well as the frankly annoying mortals that tried to make me one of their consumers. I looked for the reasonable enough people within the townsfolk while keeping Sparrow safe, using her as my voice as I gathered directions through her. Within little time, we managed to find the shop.

The shop matched the rough idea guardians had of the pre-modern age of weaponry. Various kinds of weapons, in a similar fashion to assault rifles, were either kept on the wall or put in their own individual stands, in a few cases kept on the very counters themselves. The weapons varied widely in design, however. I could tell there were vastly different grades of metal within the shop, as well as color options. _It seems Naofumi was right. He's quite the perceptive younglings if he was to recognize the quality of gear here._

_Do you fight often, Mokoto?_

_More than anybody born in my time should, my dear Sparrow._

I watched as an elderly man walked up to the casual in the expected Blacksmith uniform I had discovered within the picturebooks of the library. It seemed to me that this man was of battle and tradition, having a couple of scars on his face, and having the traditional attire of the blacksmiths from many years before his time. "Welcome! Your first time in a weapons shop I presume? You sure know how to pick 'em."

Erhard's eyes then fell upon my companion. "Ah, hello there Ms. Did you come to pick up an order?"

"...Um..."

_You're here to make one for us. Remember my condition?_

As Erhard raised an eyebrow, Sparrow made to quickly reply. "Actually, no. I am here to order my own gear at the request of Mokoto. We have a budget of 50 silvers."

 _Make it 150. I wanna be able to guarantee your survival._ I thought to her as I compared my armor with some of the ones on stand, finding a similar stat level with the most powerful one that was several times our current budget.

"My mistake actually, 150 silvers is the budget."

I smiled at her as I walked up to her side and ruffled her hair as a way of saying thanks. She noticeably stiffened, but otherwise relaxed as Erhard then spoke, looking at me. "Your master's a mute huh? That must mean you're the other dud that's arriving late to the grind, judging by that weird sword of yours."

I frowned at the man, making my displeasure visible. _If I could, I would be giving you quite the tongue lashing for that young boy!_

Sparrow seemed to be surprised with Erhard's bluntness, before speaking. "Erm, master is certainly no dud. He's quite dangerous in a fight. All I do is speak for him."

"Well as long as you two become regulars like Naofumi and that strange lady, I couldn't care less." He said as he leaned over the counter with an arm. "So, what'll it be for you little lady?"

Sparrow ended up blushing, and that ended up bringing up a question to the forefront of my mind, as I turned to look at her. _How old are you, actually? Apologies if I offend you, but to this date, there is no guaranteed way to determine one's age._

_I am 11 years old, sir._

_...11? And you're in slavery?_

_It's rather common for us demi-humans to be put into slavery here, although I have seen some humans in my travels. Regardless of our age, we demi-humans are taken and trafficked. A lot of us demi-human children are lucky to even hold a position at the castle, which was why I was so scared._

_Do you still fear me, Sparrow?_

_I am no longer scared of you. Rather, I am curious as to what kind of person you are. What you've been doing is quite unlike my previous masters, who keep their own interests as their pure concern. And your slave process was different from everyone else's._

_...Did it hurt?_

_It did not. Rather, I felt nothing. Although it was hard to breathe._

"Uhh, am I seeing some sort of weird telepathy thing going on here? You two are awfully silent, staring at each other like that." Erhard couldn't help but comment as he looked at our exchange.

"Apologies. I was just trying to determine what Mokoto wants. He has yet to learn sign language."

_I actually do know, but whatever._

"I see. So the summoning did that to you then... that's very unfortunate." Erhard said in sympathy. "I'll add 5% on top of the hero's discount. It's gotta be rough, not having easy negotiations."

"I'm sure we'll do just fine," Sparrow said. "Some leather armor, an iron shortsword, and a bow along with a couple of quivers of iron arrows."

_You catch on quickly to your new body's advantages._

_I must do my best to serve Mokoto._

_Well, the bow and arrows will work for a time. I will make you more viable gear in the future when we have a supply line._

_Is Mokoto a smith too?_

_Beyond your time, young one. For now, be my mouth and my fellow adventurer in arms._

Erhard chuckled nervously, once more catching our attention. "Well, I'll get to seeing if we have what you need, throw some innerwear for the young lady too." He then looked to me. "I don't suppose you'd like some ar-"

I took an ax and slammed it into my armor, it bouncing off harmlessly.

"...That's one freaky piece of cloth you got there!" Erhard said, stunned at my initiative and even more stunned at my armor. He ended up staring at me for a few more seconds, before deciding to get the armor for Sparrow.

_S'not cloth, it's light-weaved robes..._

_That was reckless, Mokoto. You scared me!_

_You'll have to get used to me, I'd suppose. I am not what I look like after all._

_That just makes me worry more!_

"You know, I'm surprised at how small you guys had gone in terms of money." Erhard couldn't help but admit as he brought out the armor and weapons from the backroom. "The rest of them blew through their money. Except the shield guy. He was the only one who went and stayed small, although the strange lady did most of the talking at the time.

_Ask him if he's referring to Naofumi's companion, the red-haired one._

Sparrow ended up pausing for a few seconds, before speaking. "Are you perhaps referring to Myne?"

It was less of a question aimed at Erhard and more towards me. Yet, Erhard seemed to take it as so. "Yeah, she looked like the girl Aultcray brought to me during a meeting long ago! I'm not sure if it was her, though. She didn't exactly seem like the adventuring type back then, so it would be odd for her to suddenly choose to do so." Erhard scratched his chin in thought, trying to remember the conversation. "She never gave me her name when the shield guy was here, so I can't be certain."

We looked at each other.

_Sparrow, who is this Myne character?_

_A horrible she-witch who has become as obsessed with taking the throne as the rest of nobility. I've heard rumors she had been arranging things with the Church of the Three Heroes, but I didn't have long to dwell on them before you came along._

_Hm. Further evidence to support my theory._

_Mokoto, do you plan to let Naofumi be framed by the church?_

_As much as it goes against my code, I need to see if this will provide a boost. Of course, I would be sneaking part of my salary to him after as to help him out, which is why I set the bar so low. No doubt he's going to be cheated out of things, but at least nobody should be able to figure out who's getting him back on his feet. Though preferably, I'd like to make myself anonymous._

_Why though?_

_I need to test some theories I had on the Legendary Weapons out. My sword consumed the shard of Willbreaker, causing the Necrotic Sword to form. So I wanna see if the Legendary Weapons have a sort of 'adrenaline' mode to them, a final stand of sorts. If the weapon is suppressed enough by its own society, will it adapt to drastically increase a particular stat?_

_I think that could happen. But it doesn't have to happen._

_Any boost we can get in war is a good thing. You make well to note this._

Sparrow turned back to Erhard, who sighed in exasperation. "I'm going to be seeing a lot of this from you two, ain't I?"

"We heard some rumors that she was around here. Nothing else of importance." Sparrow said, before giving him a smile. "Make sure you treat the Shield Hero fairly, ok? This country does house the Church of the Three Heroes."

"Oh, you bet I'm aware missy." Erhard jabbed a thumb into his chest. "I'm well aware of them. Rest assured, if the rest of the world won't take them, I don't wanna hear anything from them about the shield guy. It sounds like a mosquito in my ear!" Erhard then gave a hearty laugh, of which Sparrow couldn't help but share as I just grinned my ear off.

_Well, it's time to go. Give Erhard my thanks._

"Thank you very much for helping Mokoto and I out, Sir Erhard!"

"Just Erhard little lady. Thanks for stopping on by!" Erhard waved goodbye, as Sparrow and I left for the fields.

* * *

The fields of Melromarc was about what I expected. Just a vast, mostly empty green plain with some bushes and trees here and there, with only the vast view of the world ahead to serve as something of note, as mountains were easily visible off in the distance. One could almost consider going out for a picnic out here.

Well, if it weren't for the dick biting balloons.

_Are you're certain you're okay, Mokoto?_

_I told you, I have absurd defensive and offensive stats already._

I could definitely see how much of a nuisance these would be if I didn't have guardian-grade armor that was translated by this reality's system as being high-end gear within the country of Melromarc. And even more so if I didn't have any at all.

 _Speaking of stats, though..._ I looked at my level. Oddly enough I had two different kinds, one that referenced my guardian rank, which was 50, the highest rank any guardian can achieve before becoming eligible for discipline status, and level 1, which was nothing but a simple indicator of my progress in this world. It was odd, seeing what would normally be information my ghost carried around being visible on a screen instead. It also induced a feeling of sadness as I remembered what I did to my own ghost.

_What of the stats, Mokoto?_

I shook my head, as I killed the balloons on me with my Necrotic Sword, and turned to look at Sparrow who was fighting them with gusto, earning us both XP as she continuously met their charge with singing iron. _I wonder. Are levels relevant in this world?_

_To my knowledge, you need levels to unlock skills only. I have never seen a level requirement for items, but I've heard they exist._

_Hm. So it may be of interest that we seek bigger prey the following day._

The shining day soon turned into the glimmering afternoon as we both hunted balloons and whatever else we could find, eager to go ahead and let us level up as quickly as possible to catch up to the other two. Inevitably, we ended up being the same level of 3, before getting tired out. We then decided to pack up and walk back to the city, and it was then Sparrow came to me with a question.

_Tell me, Mokoto. Must what happens to the Shield Hero be necessary? Couldn't we just make the world hate us enough for your weapon to adapt to it?_

_As a guardian, I find it difficult to make others hate me. I also am afraid to hate. Hate is a dark emotion, and that goes against what I was born to do: Serve the light, and serve those under it. And sometimes, serving it is the hardest thing to do._

_You serve the light? But how?_

_It's not just any light. Maybe when we get its attention or get to it, you'll one day understand what I mean._

* * *

When we regained the trail of the other heroes, we didn't dare enter the pub until everyone was asleep. It was a long wait, and I had to sneak in using hooded robes I bought from a clothing merchant to hide who I was as I bought food and left the pub quickly for Sparrow and I to eat. As soon as we saw the light disappear from Naofumi's room, we began our plan.

The mission? Steal the valuables before the obvious thief does so.

Risk? High.

Chances of making everything worse? Also high. But I couldn't miss a chance to make Naofumi's life better throughout this experiment, even if it is minor in nature.

While still wearing my robes, I walked past Myne as she was talking to someone, and went up to Naofumi's room, readied with lockpicks. _Ironic. Now I'm the one opening doors to potentially stir up trouble._

_What do you mean?_

_Nothing. Just be ready._

I unlocked and opened Naofumi's door silently as to not give off any indication I was here. I lit a candle, a weak candle, allowing me to see clearly enough to see the bag of silver in the otherwise plain inn room of a bed, table, window and a dresser, with a chandelier up top to normally illuminate the room. I quietly took it away, stashing every single coin in my inventory before taking the chainmail. I then opened the window, just as Sparrow flew up, pointing in the direction of the stairs.

I wasted little time as I extinguished the flame.

Knowing that my glide would've made too much noise, I shut the window as I got out, and had Sparrow try and slow my descent. Needless to say, it didn't work as much as I hoped as I landed on the ground falling onto the rest of my body.

"Sorry!" Sparrow whispered under her breath. "You're very heavy for me!"

 _It's alright. We got it before Myne could do anything._ I then looked up. _And right on cue, too._

"Your calculations are impeccable, master." Sparrow couldn't help but say in awe as we watched the window become alight for a few seconds, being barely able to see an extremely confused Myne up above. It was then she looked out the window to see any thieves.

Fortunately, the angle she had doesn't give her a clear view of Sparrow. But it gave her a nice little view of my bird, and she cast a look of pure malice and rage before closing the windows silently.

"What did that mean, Mokoto?"

_It actually means 'fuck me', but in the context of what we're doing here, it means 'fuck you'... wait, were you not taught Sex Ed?_

She shook her head.

I then sighed as I now realized that this mission was now a failure. I had to give the birds and the bees talk, the most daunting task for any living being, guardian or not. I grabbed her and got ready to dash, readying a powerful burst of light to propel myself with my sword. I thrust forth with Sparrow in my free arm, flying at the speed of a car as we dashed through the streets, retreating to another pub just in case Myne spoke out about the thievery in an attempt to take it back.

_Payback shall be, what the kinderguardians say, a bitch, Myne. You will find that this religion shall be doomed to fall, as will your plan to dominance, even without my interference._

As soon as we got into the new pub, I disrobed and revealed my armor underneath before throwing it into an alleyway and burning the robes. We then paid a generous amount for the night, and slept in.

_Tomorrow is another day._


	4. A Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The three heroes ponder the true identity of Mokoto while sharing various things of their world, causing Naofumi to go to his room and chat with the warlock over the chat function. The trial then takes places, and the warlock hopes that the experiment succeeds, only for it to fail.

What does it mean to experiment?

For warlocks, to experiment would mean to bring something new to the battlefield, perhaps make quality of life enhancements that allow one to have far less issues as they go about their day, as a great warlock known as Scardrow studied light manipulation on the gravitational forces to make way for titan skating and bunny-hopping. It could be probing for weaknesses in the enemy, learning how to use your abilities in more efficient, imaginative ways, as Osiris studied the Sunsingers to figure out how to use ghosts as a tether to self-resurrect in a place far away from where the warlock initially died. Thus allowing The Guardian to get past the bridge and single-handedly defeat Crota and his armies. It could even mean learning to mess with the natural fabric and order of the universe, as warlocks would further test the defenses of places like the Vault of Glass, learning how to push Atheon off the ledge with such sheer firepower lead by The Guardian, he broke apart as he fell, while in simulations warlocks would determine if beings like Crota had unexpectedly allowed their own minions to kill him through his own defenses.

Regardless of how one views it, experimenting means to look at something from a different perspective, to break free of your own reality in order to expand it with a renewed wealth of knowledge. What that knowledge is, and how one obtains it, can vary wildly, and sometimes outright impractical and inhumane to the point that its effects deals life-changing consequences far into the future. Such is the case with the man known as Harlow, a victim of neglect and abuse that went on to make an experiment about neglect and abuse with monkeys. Despite the consequences being obvious, Harlow had went on to thoroughly abuse the monkeys by always stuffing them in cages, giving the younglings three surrogates, one that comforts and one that abuses, and one that did both, with all exhibiting anti-social tendencies found in humans. He kept them in pits of despair, leaving them stuck in a corner with no way of escaping, yet still being fed. Regardless of what happened, all of the monkeys left his experiment with anti-social tendencies.

And it is with experiments like these, that warlocks and scientists alike are viewed negatively for what they do to people and animals without remorse. Yet sometimes, a cruel, unnerving experiment can happen with only good intentions to pave its path, even if it could result in the very destruction of the world...

* * *

"Aw, man..." I grumbled to myself as I sat down with the other heroes, who looked sympathetic to my situation. "I should've kept the chainmail on."

"It's not your fault Naofumi." Myne said as she pat my shoulder, putting me at ease a little bit. "Truly, it's mine. If I had been more wary of your room, I would've been able to stop that cretin before he could escape with everything."

"It's just unforgivable though!" Itsuki threw his hands up in an outrage. "Why would anyone steal from the Legendary Heroes? What do they have to gain from stopping us from leveling up and causing us to die to the waves?"

"I agree! And to leave a man unable to provide for a woman... this part of town must be truly despicable..." Motoyasu said whilst seething with rage.

"I'm sure the King will understand, but still... it's odd." I couldn't help but wonder as I scratched my chin. "He had only went for me. You two would've been far better targets, especially since everyone would be asleep by then. They had to have been shadowing me when I was retiring for the night."

"Hey, you're right!" Itsuki said in realization, before he turned to look at a barmaid. "Slyvia! Can you come over and help us out for a second?"

The barmaid went over to their table. "What is it you need, young heroes? Do you perhaps need... company, for the night?"

Itsuki blushed while Motoyasu quickly became interested. Before he got the chance to do anything, I spoke up first. "Have you seen anyone come in yet as of late? Anyone shady?"

"No fair..." Motoyasu muttered as the maid hummed in thought.

"...I saw that person come in here. Black hood and all, came in, bought some food as if he was just a regular, and left. Couldn't get a good look I'm afraid, but I saw that he was with a harpy girl. Had a plain-looking sword on them."

"Probably more of those damn demi-humans with stolen magic weapons!" Myne said as she slammed the table with her free fist. "Just more of those lazy monsters stealing from the rich to live the life of one!"

"Malty, please. We need to think clearly here." I said, trying to calm her down. She turned her furious gaze to me for a second, before calming down.

"Of course. I apologize for my outburst Naofumi." Malty said as she adopted a neutral look on her face.

I then looked to the maid. "Thanks for your time, Ms. At least we know for certain who he is." The maid then nodded and left quietly.

"They can't all be that bad out there. Always a few spoiled apples y'know." Itsuki said, before his expression turned embittered. "Now, Mokoto though... that's someone else entirely."

I scratched my temples, checking out my inventory screen. "To be honest, I don't know what to think of her... him? She's definitely up to something, as if she's figured everything out long before I have, and she had that massive weapon booster as well." I said as my eyes glazed over my newfound shield.

**Dreadnought Shield Lvl 1**

**Level 1 perk: Initial Immunity**

**Active: When entering battle, gain immunity to any and all attacks when you raise your shield. The effect lasts for 14 seconds.**

**Level 1(locked, rope shield required)**

**Level 1(locked, soul eater shield required)**

**Level 5(locked)**

**Level 5(locked)**

**Level 5(locked)**

I tore my eyes away from the list. "I mean, in the event we get attacked by a giant dragon or something, I could raise my shield and make us all immune to its attacks for as long as you guys remain behind me. I just can't figure out the rest, though... why is it that I'm level 1, and can't unlock level 1 perks because of shields that aren't even visible to me yet?"

"Yeah, and I feel like we've just been given total duds on my end," Motoyasu muttered. "I mean, she's kinda cool and all, but a spear that shoots out a half dozen of fire-type spears if you stand and hold it in place for 2 seconds? And I could've swore she was a guy, but looking back on it now she had androgynous features... "

"And my bow has wallhacks when the arrow is fully drawn..." Itsuki grumbled. "What's the point of wallhacks if you can't even shoot the enemy and have to look in a small scope? Talk about an awesome thing turned rip-off."

"I'm sure it'll get better over time if we find out how to level these up." I tried to be of reason within the group. "I mean, all I am is just initial invincibility. Not even any offensive power for a shield guy, you know."

"You're not supposed to have any offensive power ya dingus, you're a shield. That's like saying a rocket can't explode more than once." Motoyasu pointed out. "I mean really, when have you ever seen a shield be used as a deadly weapon?"

* * *

_Somewhere across time and space..._

A phalanx troop thought they heard a guardian mocking them. They looked around, attempting to find the one who dared challenge the might of the Cabal.

They went back into formation, for a time, before attempting to figure out what PU number they needed to reach as to shield slam one of their brethren to in order to smack Motoyasu.

* * *

"Oh come on, you can't tell me you haven't heard of Steve?" I said in response to Motoyasu's comment, only to be rewarded with blank stares from them both. "The guy with the star on his shield? ...Okay, let's just add that to the number of things that are not shared across the multiverse."

"Maybe he just has a different name." Itsuki reasoned. "I wanted to mention Serafim, a hero well known for using his shield to blind the opponents of the dark."

Motoyasu chuckled. "By what, flashing them with the gleam on the shield?"

"No, by cutting their eyes out with it."

Everyone at the table paused.

"That... doesn't make any logical sense."

"World differences, I'd suppose," Itsuki said with a shrug. "What'd you think Mokoto's would be?"

"I dunno. Probably involves robots though." I then opened up the chat menu. "Think we should try asking?"

"Being entirely honest?" Motoyasu said as he leaned back. "I think Mokoto is either a sadodere, or a yandere without a love to chase after. She probably doesn't care enough about us to even consider using the chat function. That, or he's a dude, and by extension a dick."

"First off, she just stated. Second, dude, ew." Itsuki pinched the bridge of his nose. "She's probably old enough to be your ancestor in the medieval ages. Maybe even screwed dudes older than that, too."

"It's not the age that matters, it's the person... and the body," Motoyasu said with a smirk on his face, causing his two female companions in the background to groan in distaste.

 _Well, this conversation certainly took a turn._ I thought to myself as I then proceeded to watch the two of them talk their ears off about why age matters, even in spite of the perfectly maintained bodies of women. It eventually got to the point where I eventually lost interest, having become bored and tired enough to go pass out on my bed. Which was exactly what I then decided to do.

"Alright, I'm going to get some rest." I said as I got up from the table, taking one last swig of water as Motoyasu and Itsuki said that the hoped I'd get some rest, before immediately getting back into their heated debate.

I returned to my room and attempted to sleep, only to find that I couldn't. No matter what position I put myself in, or what I did to lure myself into sleep, I just couldn't. I couldn't stop thinking of what Mokoto's idea of a Shield Hero was.

Seeing as sleep was futile, I decided in a bid to let myself rest to use the chat function and ask her. "What's your world's version of a shield hero, Mokoto?"

I watched the screen for a couple minutes, before noticing that her own message came up. "Depends. You want the legends that are still alive, or the ones that are dead?"

I frowned at what she was implying the fates of those who used the shield as a daily weapon in combat, before replying. "Alive."

It seemed as if she had a lot to type, because I thought for a while that she wasn't even going to reply to that. That maybe she just saw the whole exchange as some sort of game, knowing that our differences are blatantly obvious and that learning of them would just be pointless. But to my surprise, nearly 10 minutes later she had finally sent a reply. "The best one I could remember in all my time is Saint-14. Saint-14 is a strong, titanic warrior who slaughtered the enemies of humanity with nothing but his bare fists, as he only used a shield to protect others whilst using guns on and off. His light was said to be a bright, indestructible dome that not even a black hole could hope to make a tear in. To be recognized by the titan would mean to be viewed as worthy, to be such a paragon of light and master of war that Saint-14 can see your strength without any further explanation."

And the follow-up message helped to finish the story. "But he shared his story with a warlock who banished himself from our city, a man named Osiris who studied into the algorithms of machines that existed before the dawn of humanity. One day, Saint-14 gave chase to Osiris when he went to the Infinite Forest, and found himself trapped within a paradox he couldn't escape from. To this day, accounts of him being alive and dead vary wildly to newborn and veteran eyes, but it is believed that he is in the Tower, still greeting everyone that has joined the ancient battle between light and dark, having been saved by The Guardian who went into the Infinite Forest and pulled him out of it. Even in spite of being entrapped in a never-ending battle, he still managed to remain happy and mentally sound, always interacting with children whenever he could."

"Damn." I couldn't help but whisper to myself, before I then typed. "Sounds like he was quite the guy."

"He would challenge you to see who was stronger if he was here. The titan preferred to use the shield quite often."

I stared at the ceiling for who knows how long before I drummed up another question. "So what was that whole thing at the castle?"

"I'll reveal it to you tomorrow."

"No dice?"

"No dice."

Some time passed as I stared at the chat for a few moments, before sighing. Just as I was about to close it, another message came up.

"Hey, Naofumi?"

"Yeah?"

"What was life like before the Collapse?"

"What 'Collapse'?"

A pause on Mokoto's end.

"Very well then. What's the modern age like?"

I took a moment to think about how things were back in Japan.

"I honestly never got out that much. The internet kept me busy with lots of books and stuff online, as well as games. When I got done with my allowance, I crashed at the library and read books. Never got up to date with the news, but I did know that there's a lot of old people in my country. Make up about a third of the population, the 70 year olds. Other than that, last I checked everything seemed to be okay."

"So nothing interesting happened?"

"It was just another boring day in 2019 when I got summoned. Who knows what else happened after?"

It was then Mokoto then went silent for a while, as if contemplating things. "I'm going to go to bed now."

"There was a guy out there that stole my stuff, by the way. If you see him, can you knock him out and take it back?"

"I will most certainly do so in the morning."

Taking the message as was, I closed the chat and laid down after blowing out the candles once more. _So far, it seems like this will be just a typical ISEKAI adventure. But it's just so odd, though... why is Mokoto an outlier? Is she from some other fantasy world? Why was it that a weapon had gotten a mute wielder, nevertheless someone centuries old, and paired them with a bunch of guys in school? What's the Collapse Mokoto speaks of?_

Those questions still burned in my mind as I went to sleep.

* * *

I awoke to Mokoto standing over me. Her eyes were void of emotion, although it seemed as if she was also holding something back within her eyes. "Mokoto? What are you-"

"The King requested you. Come with me." Was all she typed, as she then walked to the door, opening and closing it. Confused, but seeing no reason to follow, I got into my tracksuit seeing as I had nothing else to wear, and followed her out of the room. I then walked down the stairs with Mokoto, who didn't seem to pay much attention to me, and only looked to who I presumed to be Sparrow, a harpy girl who was just as focused on Mokoto as she was at her. It was only when I saw a group of knights barge in through the bar door that Mokoto stopped, turning her gaze.

"That's the shield hero behind you, yes?"

"Yeah? And what of it?" Sparrow said, as she calmly looked at the guards.

One of the knights, someone who I presumed to be the leader, stepped forth. "The King has issued a summons for him. He's to come with us."

"Then he's to be calmly escorted, like we are doing right now." Sparrow said, as Mokoto drew her sword, it burning like the stranger's sword did.

I didn't have much time to dwell on it as the guards drew their own weapons in response. "The job of escorting the Shield Demon should not fall to the Sword Hero, beast."

Mokoto glared at them, as Sparrow spoke once more with a stern tone. "If you all have any faith in your religion, then you shouldn't care for what the Sword Hero does, yes?"

The knights seemed to have been taken aback, although some still stood their ground.

"Mokoto is well aware of the recent events." Mokoto seemed to smirk a bit at how much Sparrow was standing her ground. "If you wish to help, you can do so by forming phalanx formations behind and in front of both Naoufumi and Mokoto."

They seemed to be at a standstill for a while. Slowly, but surely, the knights all began to collectively sheath their swords, and once the guard captain saw the collective decision of his troop, he sighed. "Fine. But we don't wanna see any unusual behaviors from you two."

* * *

I calmly walked the rest of the way back to the castle with Naofumi in tow, who seemed to be genuinely confused. _Poor soul._ I thought as I looked at him. _He has no idea what the future holds for him. No idea that this isn't some fairytale._

_Are you sure that we should not say anything?_

_We can't. We're too far deep into letting this happen, having gathered no evidence that they planned this. The best course of action is to let it happen. Besides, I made it clear that this happening was my intention, no?_

"Mokoto, why is this happening to me?" Naofumi asked as we walked to the castle. "Why is the King summoning me?"

"Be silent." Was all I typed in the chat, as I kept my gaze away from him while telling myself. _This is all for an experiment. You have the means to rectify the situation without getting caught, even if it's the slightest amount._

Sparrow dared not to pry into my self-deprecating train of thought, but I could tell she knew what I was thinking due to our connection.

* * *

As we walked into the courtroom, we found what I initially expected there to be. Myne acting like a victim when she really wasn't, hiding behind Motoyasu. Motoyasu barely holding himself back from attacking Naofumi. Itsuki giving him a dirty look, as if Naofumi was just pure scum. And the King, looking not too pleased.

"So you tried to do it with her too, didn't you ya bastard?" Motoyasu growled as he pointed his spear at Naofumi.

"What?! Do what with Mokoto? She just escorted me here!" Naofumi let out in defense, and Sparrow stepped up.

_Should we let this slide master?_

_I'd prefer to make no irreparable damage to the bridge between us. Deny Myne this favor._

"What he's saying is true. He would have to go through me if he wanted to do anything with Mokoto. I am her Speaker after all." Sparrow said as she addressed the concern. "Mokoto would awaken to his advances faster than he would be able to raise his shield, especially when I'm around."

"Are you certain of this, Sparrow? He might've brainwashed you into thinking nothing happened!" Myne said, attempting to further accuse Naofumi.

_Speak of the Tapeworm shield._

"The Tapeworm shield isn't unlocked until far into the Insect tree, your highness." Sparrow made to clarify, catching the two heroes by surprise as she continued her testimony. "Naofumi would have no such chance at unlocking that shield, especially since the requirement to even wield it is level 50. The same goes for the Wasp, Ladybird, and Fungi variations of the Sword, Spear, and Bow variations respectively."

 _The dumb woman also doesn't seem to realize that men are usually not capable of going more than one round, especially after a physically demanding crime such as that._ I thought, visibly annoyed at the mere concept of being taken advantage of. _To immediately attempt that with us? It just seems so unbelievable that it'd actually harm the case!_

There was a confused murmur throughout the crowd, as if everyone was unsure about the whole idea whilst Myne looked shocked, and angry at being denied this chance. It was only until the King coughed, silencing everyone in the room. "Very well. We'll have our scholars search the libraries for such mentions of the named weapons to verify. For now, onto the matter at hand." He then looked to Myne. "Myne, I'm sorry to ask of you this dear, but would you care to repeat your testimony again?"

"Oh!" Naofumi let out in hope of everything being alright. "Are you talking about the thief? I didn't get that good of a look of them, but-"

"Silence you cretin!" The King shouted, cutting Naofumi off who reacted with a frightened expression on his face.

I tried to tune myself out of this 'trial', but Myne's acting skills were simply just too powerful to be ignored so easily. I would've bought it, had I not been an experienced warlock who's lasted over dozens of lifetimes. _Lying filth. Had we guardians dominated this place, we would've had a warlock who studied under Lord Timur enter her and Naofumi's mind to confirm the information, and then make the decision. There is no place for liars in our society._ I watched helplessly, but knowing that it was all my doing that Naofumi was stuck in a situation like this. Even with the evidence I currently got that could get the heroes on Naofumi's side, that could either cause the radical religion to attack us, or cause the King to turn on us then and there, with neither proving a favorable outcome.

If I had just made the decision to gather as much evidence on Myne as possible, and delay her chance at putting Naofumi to trial by being present, I possibly could've stopped this from happening altogether. Instead, I had made the decision of sacrificing a life for a potentially undefined amount of payback.

 _And now, to face the consequences of my actions._ I thought as I heard the droning in my ear vanish, as Naofumi turned to me with rage.

"You!" Naofumi yelled at me with such rage that I took a step back. "You knew that this was going to happen from the very beginning, didn't you!? I bet you three were all in this together!"

The guards made to come protect me, but I raised my hand, telling them to step back. _Sparrow, see to it that nobody gets a chance to attack._

_Understood._

"And you accuse Mokoto of being in on it to? I thought you were an okay guy, but you definitely don't even deserve a shred of mercy." Itsuki spat venomously at Naofumi

"...Well, I don't care anymore." Naofumi spat bitterly as he turned to the King. "If you want me gone so much, send me back to my world! Summon someone else for this crappy job, I'm out! Why do I get ripped from my world just to go through this?!"

I paused at the notion Naofumi was making. _This experiment is about to be a total disaster._

I drew my sword at Naofumi, causing him to widen his eyes and take a step back, only to raise his shield as he kept his eyes trained on me with seething rage.

"I think it's just best he gets sent back anyhow!" Motoyasu exclaimed with a smirk on his face. "Who wants to fight alongside scum like him?"

"Believe me, I would like nothing more than to send him back." The King said as he sat on his throne, hand on his face. "But the legend says that no new heroes may be summoned until all are dead."

I breathed a sigh of relief as I sheathed my sword, as the other heroes expressed their shock. Naofumi only paused at that, as he watched my reaction the whole time. "So you did! I can't believe you've done this! After all that time in the library, you just set out to confirm some stupid theory at the expense of me?!"

I looked away, pretending as if it was no big deal even though my eyes held nothing but shame.

"The only way you all could return home is if you fight off all the waves." The King said, glaring at Naofumi as Motoyasu and Itsuki looked at the King in disbelief.

"So... we'll have to fight alongside a criminal?"

"SCREW YOU GUYS!" Naofumi shouted, causing me to flinch as the knight once more rushed forth, but Sparrow and I kept up our pressure, keeping them back as Naofumi began to storm out of the throne room. "I'll just fight off all the waves myself!"

Halfway as he walked away, Naofumi turned to look at me, taking something out of his shield. "This is what you wanted right? Shove it up your ass!" He said as he threw silver at me.

"Hey! Wait one sec-" I elbowed Motoyasu away as he tried to rush after Naofumi, causing him to fall onto his side as Naofumi kept walking.

"I'm the weak one, remember?" Naofumi said as he looked behind him just to see Motoyasu as he was, before turning away. "I don't have time to waste."

I watched as Naofumi left the courtroom, completely distraught as there was naught but silence. My own guilt-induced rage then began to bubble, as everything had been for nothing. _The experiment failed. All this accusing, all the defaming, and it failed. Nothing new happened._

"Why'd the heck you elbow me like that?!" Motoyasu said as he turned to me. "He needed to-"

I whirled around with my foot raised, and violently stomped on Motoyasu's groin, causing him to wheeze out in pain as the rest of the throne room remained shocked at what I had done. Sparrow and I collected the money to give back, and left without another word.

Not that I could even gain the chance to berate these simple-minded people without ruining my own Speaker's life.

* * *

I watched silently from the shadows as Naofumi would end up finding his chainmail and silver, just hidden away in an alleyway that I had lured him into. He looked around, unsure as to who obviously gave this to him, before resuming with that ever-stoic look on his face.

_The experiment wasn't going to work immediately, Mokoto._

_I know. I just hoped it wouldn't need to be more than necessary._

I sighed as I sat down, unsure of my next course of action. _Maybe I should take a more active stance in ruining his life, so the weapon would just adapt faster. It really hurts though, knowing I was the cause of all this._

 _I think what we did now was enough._ Sparrow then sat by my side. _Pushing it more would just be unnecessary. We'll see the fruits of our efforts in the near future._

_Do you really think so?_

_I do, master. I know that this world will push him to the point that he'll gain something out of this experiment. Were he not of the prophecy, he would've been condemned, and the people will simply treat him as such._

_Hm. I guess I will have to take your word for it, my Speaker._


	5. Adversity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After grinding and training to raise Sparrow's capability in battle, the warlock learns of the Shadow Rat that has been plaguing the town of Lute. After making plans to track the thief back to the den the culprit lives in to make better use of the bandits there, the warlock bumps into a bitter Naofumi, before retiring for the night.

Why does the warlock choose to fight?

It seems like a simple question at first. The Darkness is an ever-encroaching figure that seeks the end of all life, to reset the game that the Traveler abandoned between them. This, in turn, endangers humanity, and thus would be a valid enough reason for any warlock to fight the oncoming waves. But if the warlock sides with The Darkness, then where'd be the reason that was previously present? Where'd be the reason for the warlock to fight once more, when it is against humanity and all forms of life?

The simple truth to a warlock, nay, all guardians, humans, animals and insects alike, is that we all seek the solution to the final equation, the final shape that proves the zenith of the strongest being, the final truth and meaning that we look for in the ever-expanding universe. And whether we acknowledge it or not, we seek this answer through conflict. Endless, unending war of word, worth, and will that everyone struggles with. Some are forever bound to never find the answers they need, wandering forever with no chance of being able to exert their will, to understand, and exert the knowledge due to their lack of functionality. Some prefer to try and abandon this never-ending journey, to take the simple life and never chase after anything beyond the veil of their world. Some recognize their purpose in the journey, and will do anything to find a way to fulfill that purpose, to prove their place in the endless, but with end, and indestructible, yet vulnerable fabric of reality.

In their own way, everything that's alive in the universe seeks to find the end, as it is their purpose, whether they acknowledge it or not. And although they continue to do so, there are some that take the slightest misstep, falling away from the universe to find a quicker way to the end, and thus reigniting the conflict as their misstep causes others to step out of their way too. What becomes of that abnormality after, is something only those with understanding can see, as they witness their own great journey...

* * *

I flew through the large pack of wolves like a firestorm as they attempt to crowd me, slicing through what must've been over a dozen of wolves as I speed through them with the speed of a pike. As soon as I felt myself beginning to fall, I flipped back up to let my feet touch the ground, and dashed once more. The hordes of wolves were numerous, and thought they could just handle one warrior and a harpy. Which proved to be a miscalculation on their end, and a severe one at that as I quickly began to thin their numbers with solar grenades and the swordsmanship that I had learned during my time in Fireteam Musketeers, a fellowship that lasted until Cayde's death. I inevitably felt a pang of bitter nostalgia that resonated through the mental connection I had with Sparrow, who was fighting from up above as I tore through them.

_Is something wrong?_

_Memories, my dear. The wolves remind me of some friends I had back home._

_I see. Do you wish to elaborate?  
_

_I have little need to re-open old wounds._

I felt a bite on one of my ankles. It didn't get through the armor, but it was enough to catch my attention as it held on, forcing me to fight normally. _Speaking of wounds, can you please get this wolf off of me? I seem to have made a misstep._

 _I'm sorry, Mokoto. I'll take care of it quickly!_ Sparrow then tried to fly down, sword in hand as she let out a warcry. I held my free-hand out at her while fending off the wolves.

_Do not waste your aerial advantage! Use the arrows._

She paused in realization of what she was about to do, and quickly backed away, just in time for her to escape the jaws of the thinned pack, which was beginning to realize the fighting was becoming fruitless, and were desperate to even secure one kill. She fired an arrow into the head of the wolf on my ankle, and it was then that the wolves seemed to realize any fighting wasn't worth the effort, causing them to finally retreat from the slaughter I gave them. I sheathed my sword and took a look at our levels. To my surprise, I found that I was level 9, and Sparrow was level 7.

_Sparrow, why's your level lower? I do not recall messing with your slave seal limitations._

_It's because you fought harder than I did. Since you did most of the damage and killing, I received less of a share while you gained more. It is without the ability to be changed._

_So that means Naofumi could be..._

_I wouldn't say so, Mokoto. I would imagine his slaves are is putting their all into helping him, all without taking on monsters far too strong for them._

_And how would you know of this?_

_Naofumi would have to go ahead and buy one in order to continue fighting. No doubt Beloukas would've learned of the Shield Hero's situation, and offered him one to buy._

_Interesting. I should check to see what he currently has for a fighter._

I decided to open up the chat to see what Naofumi was currently up to, only to realize it had been incredibly silent there. There hadn't been a message on anyone's end ever since the trial. Nobody wanted to talk to each other.

_This won't be a fun meeting._

_Mokoto, you think we should add more to our party while we're in town? You're the only ground unit._

_I shall add as I need to, Sparrow. I know that as my Speaker, you worry for me, but I am very well versed in combat despite my eternal looks_

Sparrow nodded at me. _Mikoto is quite the enigma._

_In time, my little Sparrow. In time._

* * *

We arrived back at the city as we finished our grinding early in favor of finding out Naofumi's current status. The Shield wasn't a hard man to track down, especially since the townsfolk seemed to have it out for him. I had tracked him to a bar in Lute, where I found him having lunch with what seemed to be a small, raccoon demi-human. As I had hoped, he used some of the remaining silvers I made sure he kept to properly arm raccoon. While the raccoon didn't have any armor, she had what I assumed to be a high-grade dagger from Erhard.

Fortunately, he didn't seem to be paying too much attention to me, so I decided to sit down and have some food with Sparrow, keeping myself away from Naofumi's view as I sat in a table far away from him. As we waited for the barkeep to finish his rounds, we took the opportunity to talk.

_It seems as if helping Naofumi keep his cash had turned out for the better._

_Your future sight on events is impeccable, Mokoto. I would've been unable to anticipate that this would happen to Naofumi if I hadn't met you._

_It all comes from knowing how society works, Sparrow. Since I knew the Church of the Three is here, holding onto the money for when Naofumi was to inevitably be backstabbed and shamed would prove an advantage to him in the future. And then I would just let it happen, see if the experiment would be a success._

I looked at Naofumi from the corner of my eye. He didn't seem at all interested in anything anymore, seemingly void of emotion as he ate with his newfound slave. _Seems as if the null hypothesis was the only thing true here, though._

_You just need to give the weapon time, Mokoto. Then maybe the results you'll see will happen._

_Perhaps. But I only think that I have overstepped the boundaries of scientific reasoning here. It seems as if he's already at the stage of not being able to taste his food, judging from his look._

I took away my gaze as Naofumi began to scan the room. I felt his eyes pass over my unmistakeable form, and I glanced out of my eyes to gauge his expression. After he passed me over with an indifferent gaze, he suddenly became angry, but thankfully a server came between our line of sight. "May I take your order?"

_Brown bread with eggs, some potato mash on the side. And whatever you want._

Sparrow looked around for a moment. "My master wishes for some brown bread with eggs, with a side dish of potato mash. And I'll have-"

"I believe I asked the-" I interrupted the man's rude comment with the sound of my sword brushing out of my sheath, surprising him.

"I speak for Master, for he cannot speak," Sparrow said, as I put the sword back in place. "Master tells me what to do through his thoughts. And Master does not like people who treat me wrong."

The man seemed stunned at Sparrow's firmness. He stared at me for a moment, before nodding. "I-I'll get right on it..."

I watched as the man hurriedly went to get the food. I overheard an argument in the back of the inn through my trained guardian ears, seemingly upset at how they treated me. It didn't take long for a completely different server, a much older man, to come to our table with the food.

"I'm sorry about that. This inn has had some rough times with demi-humans in the past, so we tend to go ahead and listen to the human foremost when taking orders."

 _And what-_ "And what of the sign?"

I couldn't help but look impressed at the initiative, as the man responded. "It's mainly to ward off people who treat their demi-humans badly, or let them cause havoc. Though unfortunately many of the religious folk here seem to take it as we don't accept them at all." The man said with a sigh. "It's gotten even worse here since the accusation Malty leveled at the Shield Hero. Now we have to watch out for demi-humans sneaking into our inns and stealing food. We only let you in at first because he's here as well, and probably wouldn't stand for that."

"And I'd gather once you learned it was okay regardless?" Sparrow narrowed her eyes at the implication.

The man visibly flinched. "We'd have to make the exception. Aultcray released an order about it, extends to even him." He then looked me straight in the eye. "Look, I don't know what's happening in this damn country anymore, but that one accusation has gotten everyone riled up. We may be going back to war due to the double crisis."

_Prod for more._

"And you want us to do something about it?"

"I know it seems like its too much to ask, but can you stop The Shadow Rat?" The man asked- no, begged with a pleading tone. "They've been hitting places on many fronts, hasn't been captured for months. Guards have been stretched too thin for someone to deal with them, and our inn has been suffering greatly because of them either stealing directly from us, or robbing the trade caravans of the food."

We looked at each other.

"We'll consider it."

"I hope you do." The man said with a sigh. "I don't know how much longer I'll be able to remain in business."

We then ate our food in peace as the man left.

_You seemed to know what I was about to say._

_I need to understand Mokoto's way of thinking. It will make conversations quicker on our end, and less awkward_ _._

_Clever. Benefits both you and I in that way._

_I thank you for your praise._

True to her word, she seemed quite elated at how much she got right without me even thinking. I almost wanted to compare it to how the Speaker feels, but I knew the guy was a fraud. He said so.

_Do you ever find it weird? This whole mental connection thing?_

_I never thought about much beyond my library life. It was all I ever knew. The only reason I knew much about how lucky I was is due to the maids who'd help me out. So... I guess I just sort of accepted it. Does it disturb you how much I don't think?_

_When not in combat? Yes._

_I am sorry Mokoto. I'll-_

_It's alright. You don't have to share your thoughts if you don't want to. But I would much prefer to hear from you about things, whether internally or outwardly._

That caused her to pause, and lightly blush with an embarrassed laugh. _Ah! I just realized how silly I looked talking to you when you were thinking at me back there!_

_Oh?_

_You know, when we stole Naofumi's stuff for safekeeping!_

I paused at that too, before smiling. _Well, I guess it's a good thing nobody could tell what was going on, even when your thoughts are leaving your little airhead._

_Mokoto~! It happened once!_

_Technically, it was twice._

She playfully frowned, as she half-heartedly kicked me in the shin. I laughed, and even though I made no sound, she couldn't help but smile.

_...Alright, it was twice. I admit._

We then finished up our food and made our way out of the inn, and went walking around the streets looking for something of interest, seeing if other townsfolk were in need of help. It seemed that beyond a coal mine in need of clearing out, which I had little doubt that Naofumi and his slave would be able to clear out themselves if I simply gave them the direction to do so. Beyond the few quests that were already scheduled to be deeper into the forest, there was nothing to do.

Well, except be ready for The Shadow Rat. I already was, considering that I placed a tracking device that emits a strong enough radio signal that will allow me to track her several towns away on a coin purse, and filled it up with enough coin to catch a plundering eye.

It didn't take the thief long to try and rob me in the night as I walked out in the open, having left Sparrow to sleep in the inn as I mindlessly wandered the streets, pretending to just be a dumb, uncaring noble who was all uppity for the carriage having been late. I watched as the cloaked figure swept me by, having taken the bag off my hips and began fleeing quickly. I simply watched as the figure left, and the figure looked back as if to taunt me, only to stop at me not even having chased after them.

I smiled at the figure, before deciding to resume plans in the inn, continuing to craft other devious machinations within the confines of my little motel.

Only to be forced into a confrontation.

As I entered the inn, I found that Naofumi was already there, apparently having just started talking with the innkeeper.

"My companion my scream at night, though." The innkeeper gave him a dirty look at that. In response, Naofumi opened up his cape, seemingly revealing something underneath it that terrified the innkeeper. "You will let us stay, right?"

"O-of course!" The innkeeper said as he scrambled away in fear. "I'll prepare a room at once!"

Naofumi remained silent as he stared ahead for a moment. I attempted to try and sneak past him, but I had spent too much time gawking, and he turned around to end up facing me. His face quickly contorted into that of rage and betrayal. "You again?! Haven't you caused enough trouble in my life?"

I opened the chat, and quickly began typing. "I didn't care much for the whole thing, really. It's just a shame that nothing happened, considering the nature of our weapons."

"So that whole trial meant nothing to you? You think my life's that useless even though I've recovered my own gear and money!?" He threw his arm out, revealing an orange balloon that's biting him. "Well, I'll show you! After Raphtalia and I level up, I'll be stronger than Saint-14, and show you how useful shields really are you backstabbing piece of shit!"

"Never said I thought of you useless. Just that it was all to confirm a theory I had about the weapons. And it failed, despite what I initially hoped would be something to also do on the others." I typed out, before walking up the stairs to my room, trying to ignore Naofumi's glare on me all the while.

The hallway upstairs was nothing interesting. Just a simple hallway of wood floors and white walls with a window at the end of the two corridors. I went into my room to see Sparrow frowning at me.

_He was there, wasn't he? I heard shouting from downstairs._

I nodded solemnly as I went straight to work. _He projected his anger at me is all. Rightfully so._

_You are well aware of what you've been doing. Where exactly did you learn such morals and knowledge?_

_As a warlock in my world, this is but a mandatory understanding to know what to do and what not to do in war. It doesn't mean that it doesn't always work though._

_Hence the trial experiment._

_I could do far worse than the trial experiment, my dear Sparrow. If I wanted to, I could open a person's mind to me and read their memories, or turn them into minions that fight for me for a time. I could even drain a person's very life-force and use it to empower my own in times of danger. But I'll never have a need to in this world._

Sparrow walked up to my side, inspecting what I was doing. _You do it in your previous world?_

_It was frowned upon greatly. But a few times were necessary._

We were silent for a while as I casually went to work on my latest project.

_What exactly are you doing?_

_Attempting to build a prototype for a future experiment._

In my research, I had discovered that this world largely relied on medieval warfare, as modern warfare was essentially screwed over by the reality of this world, since ammo was ludicrously expensive. Which then begged the question: Could the ammo problem be solved altogether?

It was an insane question, and it was likely to bloat the technological and militaristic climate of the country if I had managed to solve it. But that never meant I had to share my knowledge.

_Mokoto seems quite knowledgeable about the subject he's going for._

_In my world, guns were the main weapons. I find it very odd with how everyone is all the sudden using swords and bows. Makes things feel very... primitive._

_Not even Faubley has managed to solve the issue. It's quite the task._

_Nothing is beyond a warlock's insight. Not even this system._ I then turned away from my work, decided to head to bed. _But perhaps you are right. I need some rest tomorrow so that we can track down The Shadow Rat._

_You plan to capture the thief?_

_The thief shall make a fine addition to our collective. We don't have any stealth after all, and that will be necessary to gain intel on the enemy, perhaps even someone to be the first strike._ I then look at the output of the tracking device and turned it on, hearing a faint signal. I turned, trying to clear up the static coming from it, until it eventually stopped overall.

"Here's the haul I got for today."

"77 silver and 7 copper?" I heard the assailant bite into an apple, feminine in tone as well. "Damn Xena, where'd you find that? We might actually be able to go without stealing for a while because of this, maybe get a roof on our head if we buy some nails."

"There was a noble in town today." Xena's tone seemed worried, and indicated she was feminine. "He just casually let me take his money, and then went into an inn. It was strange. A little too strange."

"Well, I ain't gonna complain." The person on the other side said carelessly. "There's no way somebody can track us without eyes on us, and we'd know in a heartbeat. The scouts would sound the alarm as they fire at them."

"Yeah... I'd suppose so. Maybe I'm just feeling paranoid at the strangeness of it all."

"You should get some rest. Robbing Lute must've not been easy with the sudden rise in guards lately and the allowance of castle defense lately. We already have enough for the troops, too. Only worry is that sword hero stumbling onto our base."

"Sounds good. I'm already pretty beat after outrunning that bow guy. Night, Midna."

I did a calculation on where exactly they'd be judging from direction. _The forest is a long way away from Lute. Not too far if one had the technology of a guardian, but it'd be much easier to travel back to a close location than a faraway one._

_What are you trying to figure out?_

_I'm figuring out where they'd be located. They voice worry about me. Proximity must be closeby. Needs to be well hidden._ I turned off the receiver. _They're on the east side of the forest down south. They'll never see us coming._

_You think we should go now, since Itsuki might be on their trail?_

_Unlikely. But he's more than likely going to explore the forest if he's got beef with them._

I then slipped into my own bed. _Tomorrow morning, we hunt. And recruit ourselves a small army to help us for when the second wave comes._


	6. The Shadow Den

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The warlock invades the den, causing pandemonium for all the residents there as Itsuki applies pressure from a different angle. Agility and strength unmatched, he bolts through the ranks to immediately capture the leader, capturing the camp for his own, though not having earned the right of taking the chieftain's daughter.

What does it mean to walk between the line?

Most would call it boring. A boring life filled with nothing but a lack of conflict, as you are without the troubles of good and evil. This is the reason why many choose to ignore the other side, for the simple act of neutrality makes you seem untrustworthy, unreliable, and overall useless in the overall scheme of the universe as they give no progress. The neutral life is often filled with hardships as well, with both good and evil trying to pull you into their ranks in an effort to strengthen their side. Some would even say that the neutral life is impossible, as it is as hard as trying to get a coin to land straight instead of on a side.

But the neutral life is often times the strongest, and most appealing side of them all. For often without neutrality, both good and evil would end up canceling one another out, or tyrannically dominating over the other, making it so that neither side could've never existed to begin with due to neutrality's lack of influence. Indeed, the impact of neutrality's balance spreads far into the roots of both good and evil, being the result of many saints and sinners, of tyrants and kings, of the pure and the blighted. And no matter what universe it is, even the darkest and the brightest have a minuscule amount of light and dark respectively in them. Such would be the case with The Man With The Golden Gun, who summoned his gun for the first time fueled by rage, one of the darkest emotions. And like him, many others would come to do the same, fueled by a wider variety of different emotions...

* * *

We awoke early and went straight to breakfast in preparation for what was to come. It was no small matter, after all, coming into what could potentially be a bandit encampment. Tactile planning was needed to be done in the event of not only Itsuki, but the unknown threat before us. Demi-humans, judging by the knowledge gained so far about them, ranging from humans with animal-like qualities, to actual beasts with sentience. For all I knew, this rat could be that of a porcupine, a sizable hedgehog that uses its quills offensively. Meaning not only the target would have good armor and mobility, but one wrong move could end up with a severely injured limb, or worse, death.

I looked at the Necrotic Sword. _It may be a good time to finally test out the validity of the auto-rifle mode. Although I would imagine that this would only end poorly for me._

"Hey, Mokoto!"

I turned my head to see Itsuki, who seemed to be excited to see me. He waved his party members away, signaling them that he'd like to spend some time talking with me, and the companions he had with him simply bowed politely as they went to their own tables for the time being.

"Good morning, Itsuki. What brings you to our table?" Sparrow asked politely, welcoming Itsuki in as he took a seat.

"I heard you were going after The Shadow Rat." Itsuki began to make his offer. "Do you mind if I come along? You could probably use the ranged support, since they're probably a gang instead of one person. I have a skill that'll allow me to pin the thieves in place, I just need to find them."

_It won't be necessary. I could find them if they went to the edge of the world._

"We'll be fine. We could probably use the help, though, as we don't know what we're facing in the den."

"Wait, you already found- oh what am I saying?" Itsuki said as he held a hand to his forehead. "Mokoto probably had placed some sort of weird techno thing in there, hadn't she? Being well over a hundred years old after all."

"She's neither a she or a he." Sparrow clarified, causing Itsuki to blink owlishly. Before he could open his mouth, I had opened the chat and typed a message, causing him to look.

"My abilities allow me to be quite genderfluid. I just said that earlier to screw with you guys."

"No way," Itsuki said in disbelief. "You have to be pulling me here, Mokoto."

I smiled at him and prepared my solar magic. Wings of pure flame shot out from my back, and I was momentarily covered in the golden glow of my own light before it washed aware to reveal a more feminine side I could change to on a moment's notice. Itsuki stared gobsmacked as he took in my new features, and I grinned as I reversed the process to my normal look.

"It's like every time I meet you, you have to find a way to throw me for a 180." Itsuki couldn't help but comment. "Next thing I know is that you were in a world of robots and hot blue-skinned aliens."

_That's true, actually. But don't tell him that. His little mind has been spun enough for today._

_There's a bunch of blue-skinned aliens that are hot?_

_Not always. Uldren is kinda ugly in my opinion._

"That can't be true, right?" Itsuki seemed shell-shocked. "There's no way you also have that."

"He doesn't." Sparrow quickly dismissed the idea. "He's currently just restraining himself from openly laughing at your face."

Itsuki puffed his cheeks. "Yeah, well I'll play you one day! Just because you're centuries old doesn't mean I can't sweep you with stuff from my world!"

I couldn't help but chuckle at him, and he gave me a glare in response. Sparrow couldn't help but be amused at the exchange between us. "Mokoto dares you to try it whenever you get the chance."

"Oh, I totally will!" Itsuki said with determination in his voice. "Anyhow, I'm not only here to join up and come help with the bandits. I wanna know who those two messages were sent to."

I raised an eyebrow.

"The messages from last night. You said you had some sort of theory about the weapons."

_Ah, Naofumi... it seems as if I will have to taint his reputation once more. Tell him this:_

After a moment of pause on Sparrow's end, she cleared her throat. "Mokoto had a theory about the weapons. He had studied up on this world's history, and saw a pattern about the Shield Hero."

"So what you're meaning to tell me is that this is common?" Itsuki leaned in, interested.

"Keep in mind the religion here is about the Church of the Three Heroes though." Sparrow quickly reminded. "Could be a forged text, and is actually hinting towards the Shield Heroes adapting to becoming the pariahs of the society of their own race. You've got to remember, after all, that they are shield heroes, and lack any offensive power, whereas we do."

Itsuki contemplated our words. "...I can't really say much about the answer you gave me. Dimension Web didn't put any lore on shield heroes either. At least, to my knowledge. I never got the chance to be that invested in it, so I'm just taking the Church's word for granted." He then sat up, seemingly ignoring the strange look I was giving him at the mention of lack of research into the subject matters at hand here. "Well, we aren't going to stop The Shadow Rat sitting around all day. Let's get to that miscreant's hideout!"

I nodded, and got up to venture out with Itsuki and his party.

* * *

Once we gained a vision of the hideout, a small wooden fortress with a matching portion of hedgehog archers. It wasn't fancy looking by any means, being more akin to that of a bandit camp with some fortifications. There were several houses built within the staked walls of the encampment, with some unarmed and armed bandits and what appeared to be demi-human children moving about.

"This doesn't look like a small bandit encampment," Itsuki said as he surveyed the situation. "This must be either a rebellion or a building terrorist camp."

"Or it could be a grouping of demi-humans trying to protect one another from slavery. Either way, finding one of The Shadow Rats is going to be difficult. Although..." I typed out as Itsuki spoke, allowing him to pause as he stared at me. "Let's get to planning. If you're competent enough, I might just split some of the reward with you."

We planned our tactical assault far away in cover, as to ensure our movements aren't tracked. Since we both agreed that we weren't going to kill anyone, especially considering that neither of us would get XP out of it due to the fact that the Legendary Weapons prevent getting XP in combat if nearby the others, and that we both were heavily against the idea and would seek to only injure. Itsuki aimed to take the side and catch the archers by surprise with his party, leaving me and Sparrow to take the attention of the frontlines.

Well, me, Sparrow, and this strange girl with green hair that was tied up into two braids with ribbons.

"Excuse me, but umm... are you Itsuki's sister or something? Mokoto is curious." Sparrow asked in my stead, sensing my confusion. The girl seemed shocked at the idea, as she turned to us with clear surprise on her face.

"What? No, I'm Rishia Ivyred. I joined the Bow Hero's party because he's a man of true justice!"

I gave her a look of half-amusement, half-disbelief. Sparrow mirrored my look.

"What are you looking at me for?"

"Master doesn't need to be his age to see that he's clearly with a severely damaged ego at the moment."

_I mean, he doesn't even research. Anyone who doesn't research on a daily basis either hasn't woken up to reality or has physical problems doing so. A sound, grown person would always try to learn more as to fix the problems of others, and even those at 36 knew that. Although I should probably try and be more stringent, considering the technological gap between everyone's worlds..._

"Well, I think Mr. Itsuki is far more just than others. After all, he was the other hero who stood up for Melty!"

_Wait, didn't you say it was Malty?_

_The Queen had two daughters and named them Melty and Malty. It's hard to differentiate at times, in all honesty. My opinion? Think about color theory when it comes to the two._

"-in my class before, well my family ran out of money and political power..." Rishia seemed to turn downtrodden for a moment, before quickly brightening up. "But unlike Motoyasu who's treating his women like objects, Itsuki doesn't even think about treating me that way!"

_Ask her of her favor with him._

"Does he talk to you?"

"...Not much." Rishia scratched her temples. "But I know he'll notice me one day!"

I couldn't help but smirk at her optimism. _The beauty of blissful ignorance can sometimes be so compelling... shame that when things are over, she'll realize._

"We should try and pick off the archers on the wall." Sparrow pointed out the stationed archers. "Hedgehogs are quite dangerous archers for the sole fact that they use their quills as arrows, giving them a far larger supply over any."

_They can't just shoot them all immediately? ...Seems like I've got evidence on the ancient porcupine myth now._

_I do not know how they are in your world, but no hedgehog's quills work like that. That would make some meetings become rather... gruesome._

_That was the counter-argument as well, back home._ I readied my sword as I got out of cover. _Once I charge the door, that will be the signal for you two to attack them while their back is turned. They'll be too focused on trying to ensure I don't take out their leader to notice the paralysis-tipped arrows that Itsuki lent us. Keep the pressure up, no matter what._

I then stood up out of cover and readied my Necrotic Sword, before charging straight at the forest. My sheer speed didn't fail to get noticed by the archers, who quickly draw their bows at my on-coming approach.

"Hold it!" One of the hedgehog archers, presumably the captain, said.

When I gave no response, all the archers on the small, wooden fortress fired their quills at me. As I dashed, I quickly went to my inventory and put on my helmet, fully shielding my body from the oncoming arrow storm, and barely chipping my HP as their quills burned up against my sword's arc barrier.

With the first, and only timely producible wave of arrows gone, I charged straight at the barrier, getting through with ease as I caused a hole in their gate. The alarm sounded as the archers turned around, and I watched as the few that were already behind the gate begin to scramble for their bearings.

I didn't hesitate at all, dashing into one of the houses to use as cover as I whipped out the receiver. Despite being in the encampment, the signal was still faint.

"What the hell is going on?!"

"The sword hero! The Sword and Bow heroes are here!"

"TWO HEROES!? Oh, son of a- go get Midna! Midna might have a chance at taking out the Bow Hero!"

"But Xena, what about the Sword Hero?"

I heard the bellowing sound of some kind of beast. "I'll take care of him."

_How interesting..._

_Mokoto, what's going on in there?_

I took a look around the room. I saw a couple of young demi-human dogs sitting in the corner of the room, scared. Seeing as I hadn't been ambushed yet, I quickly typed a message. "Enemy coming to your location, Itsuki, be wary." _Sparrow, keep knocking out the demi-humans._

"Pressure is getting to be a bit much here, Mokoto! If you can find the chief, now would be a good time to capture them!"

I ignored the message, already knowing what it was. _If the signal is faint despite being in the heart of operations, then that must mean that the target is currently from underground. However, this Midna seems to be separated, and a force of this size wouldn't need thieves as a main focus in units, as Midna herself seems to voice a concern over Xena's choice of career. This means that the target I'm looking for to end this..._

I looked for what was the largest building within the house's cracks. _Must be here._

I sliced a hole in the roof and jumped through it, finding the building I was in getting surrounded by soldiers with melee weapons. They kept their weapons on hand, but much to their dismay, I simply jumped from house to house with ease, despite them being dozens of feet apart as I made my way up into the keep of the area, getting onto the third floor and busting through a window.

I found the chief of the operations here, who was half-naked as he was attempting to dress into his armor, of which he only has the trousers on. Despite his old age, he gave off a grizzled outlook, with muscles large enough to utterly smash foes without a weapon. He seemed surprised that I had made it up here, but otherwise took on a stoic look. "So you came. My daughter had voiced concerns that you were stronger and more intelligent than the rest of the others. It seems as if I had far underestimated your true strength, though."

I stared silently at him.

"Ah yes, I forgot that Aultcray said you were a mute." An awkward silence fell between us. "Well, I suppose we should get a translator in here, should we not? To discuss terms of surrender, since you caught me with my pants down. Figuratively speaking at least."

 _Sparrow, fly into the air for me._ I thought to her as I typed onto a keyboard. "We won. Calling the ceasefire now." I then proceed to point at the chief, before going up to the window I busted through and pointed to the outskirts.

The chief seemed to take the hint and looked to where I was pointing. He saw Sparrow in the distance and seemed to be surprised. "A harpy girl? I heard rumors that there was one traveling with you, but I never would've imagined..." The chief seemed to take in the sight, before cracking a grin. "Ceasefire! We have been put to the sword!"

I then sheathed my sword, and the chief nodded, understanding the tone of the negotiation I was aiming at. We left the building with the both of us paying little attention to detail, seeking to get this over with as soon as possible, only stopping to grab a pencil and paper for us to talk a little more on the way there.

"So, what exactly is it you intend here?"

I wrote out my intentions on the paper. "Allies. And a stealth-based fighter for my group."

"Hm. I shall see about that." Was all the King said as we exited the building.

As we exited, I saw the whole tribe of demi-humans out with their weapons. They glared silently at me, but otherwise didn't dare to make a move as the King and I came out into the open, Sparrow flying over whilst carrying over Rishia on my right. I watched as Itsuki came through the crowd on the left, and once he made it through, he came out with the biggest grin on his face.

"Duuuude, how'd the heck did you do that!? I knew this was a big place, but I didn't think it was that big!" Itsuki said, seemingly in awe of my abilities. I ignored him as I watched the rest of his party come through the crowd as well, seemingly irate at all the demi-humans around them. "You've gotta be like, some sort of ninja from another world! We didn't even get a foot in the door to help you get him!"

"You could say that about Master," Sparrow said as she put down Rishia. "Although that is to say he won't share anything with you. Except supplies in case you're in need of them though."

"Supplies? Why would we expect-"

"Get out of our way!"

I watched as a large mongoose made its way through, easily 3-stories tall if it were to stand up to its full height, as two lithe looking girls rode it through the crowd in a haste. One had two large, curved-blades resembling hive swords, although much more in tune with the darkness as they had each a far sharper serrated edge, and darker color tone to them. Her hair had a white tone, in contrast to her menacing black steel armor and weapons that hid the true size of her body's form, although that wasn't to say she clearly did have the muscles to support such armor. She had a calm demeanor about her, even though the fight was already over.

The other had a simple bow, although her quills were ebony black, and she had a plentiful amount of hair to make use of the bow with. She had black chainmail armor that snugly fit her lithe body, along with a serrated dagger to use in case the enemy got close enough to touch her, or any perverts who wished to get a feel for her moderately sized chest. In contrast to her white-haired companion, the dark-haired girl seemed absolutely furious that the chief had given up so easily, glaring at me all the while with her ruby-like eyes.

"Daughters! How nice of you two to join us today." The chief said as he smiled upon them, before motioning to me. "This is our conqueror. Mr, erm..." He looked to me, only to have Sparrow speak up.

"Master's name is Mokoto." Sparrow clarified. "I, Sparrow, speak for him."

"Mr. Mokoto and Ms. Sparrow. The lady is in charge of the negotiations here, Midna, Xena."

Silence fell between us and the whole tribe.

"Now, with the introduction out of the way, let's say we-"

"Why the fuck are we negotiating with a noble?" The black one, presumably Xena said as her eyes landed on me. "You could literally smack him around before him and his stick-sized body is able to hurt you, Dad!"

"Now now Xena, do please remain courteous to Mr. Mokoto. He had defeated dad in fair combat, after all." The white-haired one, who I presumed to be Midna said in

"I can see the broken window from here. He caught him with his pants down! A real warrior would wait until his opponent is fully ready!"

"Your sister is right, Xena." The chief took the white-haired sister's side. "It was in fact a fair fight. In war, the enemy does not wait for you, and I should've been prepared for the Sword Hero."

_Hm. A man with wise words and philosophies. He'll be valuable._

The man turned to me. "I hope you can pardon my daughter's words?" I gave the man a shrug, and he turned to address the tribe. "Mokoto has but two demands: That when the next wave arrives, we are to help him combat it. The other is that he requires the aid of one of our Shadow Rats. Those who lurk in the shadows, come forth and reveal yourselves."

A small group of 5 other demi-humans came forth, all wearing dark leather armor and of varying sizes and age. The young ones stood nervously, while the rest simply stood in line, waiting to be chosen. But none would be.

In spite of staying still the whole time, I could tell by the moment she stole that coin purse from me that she was not some ordinary thief. She was a skilled infiltrator adept at disarming the enemy before they could notice her, perhaps even undo certain pieces of armor to leave the enemy exposed to a stab within whatever region of the body she chooses to expose. Her movement was deft, as silent as death itself when she came upon me to take the money off of me, and her overall speed was like that of the wind, even though she didn't try that much.

A fine addition to my fireteam.

Instead of pointing at any of the ones he brought out, I brought out my receiver, turning up the volume loud enough for everyone to hear her words. I then pointed at Xena.

"Yeah, sorry bub but I'm not... a shadow... rat." Her words slowed to a standstill upon realizing she had been caught redhanded the whole time. She searched for the coin purse, looking within it for anything that could let out the noise. Her eyes widened.

"Well, you've certainly got quite the handy device there." The chief said with interest as he inspected the receiver. "Did the King's mages make this for you?"

"This technology is of Mokoto's own world," Sparrow said, taking the words before I could speak them to her. "He could tell you how it works... that is, if you're willing to take the offer."

"Wait," Itsuki said as he looked to me, typing something in the chat. "Mokoto, you aren't thinking about working with these people, are you?"

"We are the worshipped heroes of this land, Itsuki. Should I not be allowed to choose who I make friend or foe?" I posted my predetermined response to Itsuki in the chat.

"Well yeah... but I don't the King will like it," Itsuki said in person, before turning back to the crowd.

"The puppet can be as angry as he wants until the Queen arrives." I typed back in chat, ignoring the tribe's confused stares at us both. Itsuki simply read the message, stopped to think for a moment, and then looked at me.

"Wait, this place is a patriarchy?"

"Well, you seem to be quite the interesting person to work with Mokoto, but..." The chief turned around with a hum of thought, as he positioned himself to be directly behind me while still facing away.

Sensing his intentions, I stepped into the ring of combat without letting anyone be aware of my own understanding of the situation. A few seconds later, the King fell to the ground and landed on his hands, pushing himself off the ground so hard that he would've kicked me straight into the center of the ring as he instead landed normally.

He turned around to look at me, thoroughly impressed as I drew my sword for combat. "Why I must admit, that works on almost everyone I've met! You sure have a penchant for understanding the situation before you, Mr. Mokoto."

"Shaxx taught him that."

"Shaxx must be a good trainer then!"

"Dad, what is this?" Xena began to demand. "Why is the Sword Hero stepping before me with his sword drawn?"

"Regardless of your experienced demeanor Sword Hero, I cannot just let you take my daughter so easily. She's yet to be a fully-realized Shadow Rat, lacking in certain areas that you've no doubt noticed." The chief said as he turned around. "However, not only is she family, but she also has qualities to her that I cannot just let go of so easily. Qualities that make her one of the strongest in this tribe. So if you want my daughter..."

I felt the man's gaze come upon me. "Then you will have to fight my twins to prove you're worthy to fight with one of them in battle."


	7. Reality Check

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The warlock barely manages to fight off the twins, activating radiance that inadvertently cripples Sparrow's ability to fight, burning her alive as he passes out and forcing Itsuki's party to save her life. The warlock awakens to the chief's wife outside an open cell, who has a one-sided conversation with him before he returns to Sparrow and heals her as best as he could.

I looked at the twins, my HUD informing me of their level. The black-haired was a level close to my own, that being level 13. But her level didn't compare to that of her sister's, which was 18.

"So you're telling me we have to stomp him and his speaker together?" The white-haired one said, her tone suddenly taking on one of sadistic glee, as she jumped off the mongoose. The crowd around us drew shields in a phalanx formation, as if knowing the combat before them "Good. I was getting tired, having to deal with newbies. This Sword Hero may prove a moderate challenge."

I was a little taken aback by the proclamation and tone, but otherwise maintained composure. _This shouldn't take too long. You will have no need._

_Are you certain of this master? The white one is most likely several stats ahead-_

_I am centuries old with the knowledge to teach these children a lesson. Rest assured, I can win this battle._

I readied my combat stance, readying a firebolt grenade as the other sister slid off the mongoose, readying her bow. She looked behind me. "A two versus one? You sure that's a good idea sword guy?"

I gave her a deadpan look as she spoke for me. "Mokoto thinks this will be a fair fight this way."

Xena grinned at me. "Bad choice."

"The rules are simple." The chief said, seemingly not noticing the fact that I left Sparrow out of things."If anyone here lands in the red, they're automatically out of the battle. Is there any objections?"

"You certain we shouldn't take this outside?" Itsuki brought up the potential issues with the situation. "Mokoto is

I ignored her arrogance and focused on her sister. Midna analyzed me carefully as we stared each other down, both attempting to get a feel for our experience before the fight started. I could tell that she had experience with her, but not enough experience fighting with a guardian fencer who actively used the sword. Though while my skills would be severely limited by the surroundings before me, I could still use the crowd as a gravitational well to bounce off of, and I still had a ground, as well as ranged capabilities, to work with. All I would have to do is chip away while being aware of the black one.

And I could tell that with how long she stared at me, she figured out my battle plan as well. Which means I would have to change my attack pattern as well.

The moment I jumped up in the air, the two of them moved simultaneously. Instead of rushing forth, I saw Midna move backwards, concealing more of her sister's view. This confused Xena, who ended up holding her shot long enough for me to be out in her left as I dashed to the right.

I slid as she fired at me, throwing the grenade at her, barely missing the arrow as it flew over me instead as it bounced off the shield. Midna then rushed me, attacking in two different angles as she lunged, forcing me to jump high in the air and give her a roundhouse kick. Both Xena and Midna attempted to land a hit on me, but was surprised by the grenade's vastly different properties as a ring of fire enveloped them, before retracting and shooting a beam of light at both of them.

"Fascinating... the wolf has tricks up his sleeve." I heard the chief murmur under his breath as we fought.

I faked going for the sister, causing Xena to back up as Midna slammed her swords at my previous position, barely avoiding hitting Xena as I flew off to Xena's right. I then rushed Midna, taking her moment of exposure while I could and slashed at her, landing a few free hits on her before backing up, avoiding the arrow shot Xena fired at me.

I watched a green bar I never noticed before go down on Midna's end, though it didn't become red, becoming yellow. _Sparrow, I'm assuming that must be a representation of how many hits she can take?_

_You didn't notice this before master? Surely it is in your vision as well?_

I looked at my own. It was already near perfect, being green and having little to no loss in it. I then narrowly dodged an arrow aimed at me, dashing away to gain distance from Midna. _No. In my world, this never existed beyond our physical condition and shield levels._

But I didn't take time to dwell on it. I turned my gaze to Xena, simply running at her instead of dashing at her, causing Midna to change her pathing to meet me halfway. As she was trying to, I suddenly switched target, dashing at her with such speed that she was barely able to block the quick attack with one sword, and used the free sword to slash at me.

I grit my teeth as the attack connected, feeling some genuine pain from the attack as I kicked her, pushing her back with a light-infused solar kick. I looked at my HP bar, and found that it had gone into the yellow with just that one attack whilst I idly deflected one of Xena's arrows. _Not good. It seems as if more drastic measures may be needed._

I jumped far back, making sure to maintain my distance as I focused my light, taking only a split second to switch from a firebolt to fusion and throwing it at Xena, who rolled to the side as she fired another arrow. I looked at Xena's HP. The firebolt seemed to have barely done any damage to her HP, only having taken out 1/10th of it.

I calculated the possibility of simply bombing them until the fight was over and still getting Xena. _Theoretically, I could make the fight last long enough to grenade them out. But this could lose favor with the chief, with such cheap tactics being put at play. No, it seems as if I'll..._

I took a deep breath. _Be brave, guardian._

As Midna then proceeded me to rush me with both her swords aimed to slam upon me, I summoned forth my solar light, tanking the hit as I nearly blinded the bandit village with the burning light of my radiance, barely even taking damage as I pulled the swords out of my shoulders. I could feel the very light in my body shake my already vulnerable, mortal being, sheer burning light making way for insurmountable strength.

This simple act may seem like it is just another super for warlocks. But radiance is far different. When a warlock becomes a sunsinger, their light becomes self-sustaining, yet also incredibly dangerous to the wielder. Unlike a dawnblade's, gunslinger's, or sunbreaker's flames that simply envelop the wielder in a protective flame, radiance spirals out of control, lighting the guardian on fire as it protrudes out of every orifice, every pore in the body as the fire becomes the unprepared warlock, tearing away at their life force and soul, forcing a ghost to keep on top of their unstable guardian as they try to reign it in as a weapon, only for most undisciplined warlocks to find nothing but pain from the power.

And with no ghost, I was essentially on a timer until I was to become red. And Sparrow's sudden screams of mental agony made the pain of using this uncontrollable way of using the light like this evident for my own state, forcing everyone's gaze to turn to her, including Midna and Xena who stopped what they were doing to stare at Sparrow in shock.

The moment was all I needed to send Midna flying against the wall of shields, letting out a blast of pure solar wind.

As she fired another arrow, I dashed at her, taking the hit head-on as my health slowly trickled without the proper protection from a ghost. She attempted to evade me, but I grabbed her by the wrist, unintentionally burning her as I flung her behind me, blasting her away with another wave of solar wind. Yellow HP.

_Master, stop._

Midna quickly got up and tried to rush me once more, only to be met with another blast of solar wind, knocking her back as well as her sister desperately got up to continue firing arrows, trying to chip my HP further. Yellow HP, and her eyes turned to terror as she realized she could no longer even hope to touch me. Not that she should as of now.

I turned to Xena, and threw a fusion grenade at her, causing her to roll away and be burned by the shrapnel. Near the red. She began to charge up an attack.

_Master, please! It hurts!_

As I approached Xena to quickly knock her down, Midna caught me off-guard, knocking me down to the ground. She desperately attempted to stab at me, but solar wings sprouted from my back, causing her to flinch and allow me to throw her off. I then grabbed her by the throat, and launched her over the crowd, causing the mongoose to quickly catch her as she was sent flying.

"Avatar's Arrow!" Xena shouted as a quartet of arrows flew at me, each charged with a different element in nature. I threw a firebolt and raised my sword to block it, ending up stumbling backward as my guard broke from the four arrows. But the firebolt finished the job.

I deactivated my radiance, body writhing from the pain as I fell to a knee. I looked over to Sparrow.

My heart dropped at the sight. As I fell to unconsciousness, only one thought had run through my head. _I'm sorry, my little Sparrow... I didn't think the link would affect you physically..._

* * *

I didn't know what to think about what happened. All I could tell in that moment that Mokoto was going to lose the battle, and whatever he wanted from the thief was never going to happen. Then all of the sudden both him and Sparrow lit up with such sheer heat that I thought I saw the sun for a split second, somehow strengthening him while also causing Sparrow to writhe in pain for what seemed like an eternity in the fight, as the smell of chicken permeated the air whilst Mokoto knocked around the sisters as if they were a half dozen levels below him, and not the other way around, yet somehow still losing HP as the effect going on.

The only thing I knew to do is that when the sisters turned red, and Mokoto fell unconscious as he also turned red just at the end of the battle, the flames had dissipated on the both of them. The chieftain and I quickly went to pick up our respective allies, my party had picked up Mokoto while I carried Sparrow over to them. "Welst, get to healing, Mald, get me the health potions! They're critical!"

"Sir Itsuki!" Welst called out in protest, as I placed Sparrow next to him, the crowd dispersing to take care of the sisters "You don't plan to-"

"They're both burnt up!" I shot back, as I took some potions from Rishia, who had already gotten them for me. She said something, but I didn't really hear it in the heat of the moment. "If Mokoto dies, we lose one of the heroes we need for this wave! If Sparrow dies, he'll be distraught! We need to save them both!"

I tried to have Sparrow drink some of the potions while the others, save for Welst who stared at me, tried to get Mokoto's helmet off to see his condition, having a tough time. I poured some of the potion into Sparrow's mouth, trying to get her to swallow the health potion. The potion went down, but it didn't seem to have any effect, her HP rising temporarily only for it to continue going back down.

"Come on, come on… get up, Sparrow!"

I tried again and again, using a significant portion of the party's potions trying to get her to wake up, and heal her past the burns that continued to weaken her in that moment, the bar going up and down, barely even making any progress towards becoming yellow.

It was then that Welst sighed, moving over to me. "Sir Itsuki, please quit wasting the potions on the demi-human."

"Welst, she's-"

He pushed me out of the way, preparing some water magic. He washed some water over the burns, removing the inflammation and the smoking decay as he moved all over her body with the water. Soon enough the HP degeneration slowly stopped and instead started regenerating. I breathed a sigh of relief as Sparrow started to finally stabilize.

"Continue pouring the potions," Welst said bluntly as he returned to Mokoto. "Mokoto needs more attention than this filth. She's lucky I had holy water on hand."

I couldn't help but stare at him in disbelief, torn by both his attitude towards Sparrow and his helpfulness. Shaking away those thoughts, I quickly kept pouring potions down, opening up the chat to inform Motoyasu on the situation via the PMs.

"We found and stopped the den, Motoyasu, but…"

"But what? What happened over there?"

"I found out more about Mokoto. Not only was she not a girl, but she is a he that's able to look like one."

There was a moment of pause on his end. "Anything else? Has he been helping Naofumi as we suspected?"

"I think Mokoto purposely let Myne be raped. He said that he saw a pattern, but never said anything to us in the chat function. He's also somehow burned Sparrow through the slave seal, activating some kind of final stand power that made Sparrow take more damage than him."

"That son of a bitch… we can't challenge him as we are now, can we?"

"He's level 11. You and I are currently 2 levels below that."

There was a pause on his end, as if he was contemplating things. "He's too fast. If we're to stand a chance, we need to out grind him so we can free Sparrow. For now, we should focus on the upcoming wave that's due soon. You're in his good graces, so keep an eye on that psycho. Things can only get worse the longer he's left to his own devices. I'll meet you at the Dragon Hourglass. We need to come up with a plan to defeat Mokoto and Naofumi before Mokoto becomes too strong, or tricks that bastard into being his minion."

"Should we tell the King? The Pope?"

"Neither. This has to be a matter between us heroes. We need to tear down this old man's ego."

I nodded as I then closed the PM channel, and looked to Mokoto who was being tended to by my party. I leveled a hateful glare at him. _Y'know, maybe Motoyasu's initial thoughts about you were right. To hurt your slave like that just to gain an edge, trying to ally with the bandits... and plotting to overthrow the King from the start? Living long really does seem to make people the villain._

I motioned for the group to get up and leave them, deciding that the traitor hiding in the midst would be taken care of by the bandits here.

* * *

I awoke to an unfamiliar room within a cell, no doubt located within the bandit camp. It seemed to resemble the barracks of this encampment, with there being an elderly woman on the other side of the cell. She sat on a chair located next to the door, quietly reading a book as I just got up, staring straight at her. She looked at me, surprised as she also stood up. "You're awake. That's pretty surprising. Most people don't wake up from being burnt for a few weeks. Guess it's good considering the fact that the 2nd Wave will be coming soon."

I looked around in some small confusion, looking for Sparrow. The only other thing I spotted was a set of armor.

"It was quite a surprise that you even managed that anyhow. Was that a skill you brought over from your world? It does seem to be so considering that you don't have anything down-" The woman seemed to ramble on until I shook the bars a bit to get her attention. "Ah, apologies. I forgot to mention that we didn't have any room for you to stay, so you had to take the barracks' only prison cell while Sparrow rested in the only spare bed within our house."

Getting the idea from what she said, I tried to open the cell door, and found it was unlocked, allowing myself to get on the other side of the bars. The woman seemed to not be bothered by the fact that I walked towards her, and I addressed the elephant in the room.

"Your armor, that's what you're trying to tell me, yes?" The elderly lady seemed to giggle, as she went to the corner of the room and threw me a simple leather armor set. I put it on as she kept talking. "You really should pay more attention to your gear sonny. The magic robes had become worn out from all the battling you've done without care of reparation. It's a blessing it only took some stitching to fix them up, but now their use is currently long gone. Now they're just clothes."

 _Use...?_ Confused by what she meant, I looked over in my inventory, first checking on the sword.

**Necrotic Sword(Arc)**

**Unlocked!**

**Rarity: Legendary**

**Level 5**

**Attack:75/8**

**Weight:4.4lb**

**Accuracy:22/13**

**Hands:2/1**

**Level 1 Perk(Unlocked)**

**Necrochasm**

**Passive: Kills with the weapon charge the weapon by stealing the enemies' life force. When fully charged, gain a 2.0x XP bonus, or change into assault rifle mode and gain XP debuff of 0.5x until you run out of ammo.**

**Level 1 Perk(Unlocked)**

**Willbreaker**

**Passive: Non-boss level enemies below level 15 will convert to your side for 2 minutes with each successful hit for a chance of 4%. Active: After leveling up you or the sword, the next person you speak to will obey you for one command.**

**Level 5 Perk**

**Bottom Feeder**

**Active: Stab the sword into the ground to summons a horde of maggots, eating voraciously away at the flesh and body of your foes.** **Passive: Killing enemies cause maggots to spawn from their corpses in a frenzy. Non-harmful to wielder.**

**Level 5 Perk**

**Catharsis**

**Active: When placing a hand on a living target, they will become affected by an overwhelming presence that makes it impossible to think of their own accord. Targets that are below your level will fail to resist this, and vice versa. Passive: Allies will not back down from a fight unless ordered, gaining increased health and stamina regeneration.**

**Level 10 Perk(Locked)  
**

**Level 10 Perk(Locked)**

**Level 20 Perk(Locked)**

**Level 20 Perk(Locked)**

**Level 40 Perk:(Locked)**

**Level 40 Perk:(Locked)**

As I looked over the rest, that of which consisted of materials, some armor and weapons I planned to sell, and random trinkets, I came to a startling realization as a number of stats that weren't present on the sword made themselves visible to me. _Durability... I became so used to the fighting, that I forgot Ghost took care of such things. How can I possibly repair something from my own world?_

"Judging by your face, I'm gathering it cannot be fixed." The lady said with a sigh. "Terrible shame too. It was easily level 50 gear or even higher, but due to your lack of care, it could now barely hold against my daughters."

I looked at her quizzically, and she smiled. "Ah, where are my manners?" Her skin then changed color, revealing that she was in fact a chameleon demi-human. "I'm Amitola Celestia. The leader of the shadow rats, and Pined Clouds Tribe."

I nodded at that, and motioned to the door. She nodded.

"Yes, we wouldn't want to keep you from your speaker. Or my Xena." She then grew a sly grin. "Although it wouldn't hurt for you to say something. You did best my daughters after all."

I jokingly started to talk to her, even though no sound came out. She had a good laugh at my lack of speech, and opened the door, revealing the outside once more which was now bustling with demi-humans moving about at their casual pace. Some of their gazes were directed at me, the nature of them being wildly varied. There were certainly suspicious ones as much as there were friendly and neutral gazes, but otherwise, everyone kept to themselves as we passed them by, going back to the house the chieftain was in. When we arrived, I found Xena leaning on the wall next to the front door, glaring at me.

"Now now dear, he's passed the tests. I think it would be a great thing if you traveled along with this man." Amitola said with a soft smile. "It's what you wanted to do. Practice your skills and become an adventurer that disrupts the slave trade, no? You get to do them both while under the protection of this nice young man."

_Over centuries old, but whatever you say._

Xena stayed silent as she continued to glare at me. "...Just so you know, there's is no chance in hell I will be putting on a slave seal." She spat the last part out with venom. "So don't even think about trying to permanently keep me around, because I will leave at the slightest sign of that ink on me." She said, before straightening up and sending me a notification that she wishes to join my party.

 _Ink? I don't recall there being ink. It must've been what that mage was applying during the ritual._ Was all I thought as I accepted the offer. I saw something change in the top left corner of my vision, and saw not only Xena's current status, but Sparrow's. While Xena had made a considerable enough recovery from the spar that took place, Sparrow's burns were still quite severe, to the point that her HP was stuck halfway due to an effect that I somehow placed upon her when I activated radiance.

 _I would have to research these things.._ I thought as I entered the house to collect my Speaker. _Oh Sparrow... how could I not realize your being had become inexplicably tied to me?_

We eventually came upon a room on the second floor. It was a simple room, with a bed that had a sky blue bedsheet, a window to the outside, and some bookshelves with various books that no doubt detailed various legends of the many heroes that came before us. While many of them consisted of the Shield Hero, there were some of the bow and sword hero, with the spear being in the minority. None of this drew my attention, though.

What mattered to me, was Sparrow, who laid on the bed, covered in sickening burns as she was watched over by the chieftain. Once more, I had violated the code meant for all guardians to uphold, and once more made truth to warlocks being considered the bastards of the Traveler.

The chieftain turned to look at me. "Ah, you've made it. I wouldn't suppose you'd know what happened when you lit yourself on fire, would you?" He then turned back to her. "Although I'd like to think you wouldn't do this on purpose. Amitola had spoken highly of you, after all, even before the attack. You do seem to be a lot more aware of religion than most other heroes that are summoned."

I looked down, not only in shame but in thought. It was then a thought occurred to me. It was largely an incredibly impractical idea, but I couldn't help but think it out, drowning out the noise of those around me once more.

_If what Amitola said was true, then Sparrow would come to miss the Wave, which could be detrimental to our survival depending on what we're facing. Which would not work out well. But perhaps if I invert the nuclear energy process within my grenade, releasing and freezing the heat instead of containing it like how an expert voidwalker absorbs the life of their enemies precisely through grenades... could that be how the Dawnblades do it?_

I looked back to Xena. She stared at me disapprovingly. "She's in my bed because of you."

 _You won't have a death on it. This, I promise._ I then tried to go through with my hypothesis. I readied my grenade, but instead of immediately throwing it out, I held onto it, manipulating the energy to try and be a stimulant instead of an atomic disruptor. The end result was the grenade exploding in my hand, burning it, and leaving me with but a spark of soft, glowing white light as I grimaced in pain from the flames having singed me. It was nothing like the Dawnblades, but having no need to study them before, it would have to work.

Holding the spark in hand, I placed the hand on her forehead while still holding the spark, brushing my hand down to her cheek as to direct the energy to re-energize her body. A moment passed by, and my Speaker began to wake, her eyes opening for me to breathe a sigh of relief.

_Master?_

I gave a soft embrace to her, my normally stoic look giving away to tears. _I'm sorry, Sparrow. I didn't think radiance would end up extending to you as well. If I just knew... why didn't I even bother to test the traits of the seal?_

_Was that what that burning feeling was? I... It felt like every part of my soul was on fire. Just as my body was._

_Does it hurt still?_

_It still feels hot. Like I'm still wrestling with the energy._

_This is my fault. I promise you, I will find a way to-_

_It is not, master. Do not beat yourself down for this._

She tilted my head up to see her face with an arm. She smiled at me.

_This is not your world. Every hero goes into this world thinking it works like theirs, or some other place. You had only come to realize this now, and it's shaking you, isn't it?_

_Ha... I'm supposed to be the logical one here. It's my duty as a warlock._

_You're not a warlock any more. You're the sword hero. For why else do you use the sword?_

I couldn't make a response to that. Instead, I just cried at the helplessness of the situation before me. Of the reality that I was no longer a guardian, no longer one of the Traveler's smartest.

For what is a guardian without their ghost?


End file.
